The Scream Saga
by Smoothly Does It
Summary: A mysterious Foundation extracts an offspring from the Venom symbiote, leading to a new menace who will threaten her parent, Spider-Man and much, much more!
1. Chapter 1

-What if- what if- what if it's because of the incident?! It has to be! They're gonna fire you for sure!- A voice chittered nervously and irritably. She shifted an eyebrow with disinterest, pursing her lips as she shut the noise out.

-Y-you worked so hard, but they're gonna get rid of you! You know what they do when they get rid of people! Oh no! Oh no!- Her brow furrowed in annoyance as the tall, flame-haired woman chastised herself for letting it get to her.

~Sooo wrong it's ridiculous! You're the best this company has! Besides, they're called The LIFE foundation!~ Said another, confidence oozed from the words.

-No, no, it's the end! They want rid of you, they hate you!- Her hands balled into fists and her nails dug into her palms, she hated this kind of talk but the feeling... the feeling lingered.

'I don't know... God, this waiting's killing me!' She thought to herself with agitation, casting her head back as she filled her lungs, striding forwards a couple of paces before turning. The door she waited by remained sealed, silence beyond.

-No, no you have to listen! You have to be ready! I KNOW what happens! I KNOW!- Was that true? Were they out to get her all along? Would THIS be the moment they would strike?!

~Come ooon! That's total shit and you know it! You have to remember who you are! What you have done for them! They love you!~ Came almost seductively whispered tributes of words in the brutally-styled industrial corridor.

'What the hell is taking so long?!' She asked herself, trying to clear her head.

-Oh god! A firing squad! They're preparing a firing squad! What else would take this long?!- It wasn't just the words that irked her, but the skittish, believable passion. Everything she heard made a dent and she wasn't lacking for those already.

~Seriously?! A firing squad? Come ooon, it's the twenty-first century!~

'Both of you... just shut the fuck up!' She took a moment and screwed up her face 'I'm talking to them again...' She shook her head as if to rattle something out, 'They're NOT real! Do NOT listen!' She coached with a satisfied grin.

Footsteps echoed within.

-Oh no! This is it! They're gonna try to kill you, Donna! Don't let them!-

'They're NOT real!' She repeated.

* * *

The soft blue-light glow illuminated the webbed design of his mask in the waning light of evening; a digitised facsimile of words spoke to the man perched precariously on the lip of a building.

He smiled though she couldn't see it "Sure. I'm just gonna do one quick sweep then I'll be there." He listened for a few moments as he voice changed into something altogether more beckoning, "Ooookay, scrap that: NYPD step up to the plate! Spider-Man is coming home!"

The sound of laughter from the phone was drowned out by whistling wind as the inhumanly lithe man pounced into the sky, making his "love-you"s to his partner and swinging into the night.

Maybe it was the boyish excitement of what was awaiting him, but Spider-Man felt buoyant; the city seemed so beautiful as the artificial lights pockmarking the dark, looming monoliths of buildings spread and multiplied.

It made a nice change to be able to swing so lackadaisically about; no disaster to avert, no big-bad chewing up a neighbourhood. He felt like stealth itself in the descending darkness; it felt good.

He was shaken from his meditative state by the sense of vibration in his pocket. Freeing up one hand he reached for it; nothing, no messages. With a shrug, he put it away.

"Must be feeling thing-?" Again, only this time he definitely heard his text tone. Given his history and all he'd seen, when he found no notifications a second time, his mind turned to the kind of foreboding a run in with a crackpot like Mysterio might offer. He REALLY didn't have the patience for that right now!

Flipping thrice to land on a billboard he double checked he hadn't missed anything; it had nothing to say... for a moment. Spidey swallowed hard as his phone grew a mind of its own, throwing every ring tone and alert in its memory at him.

"Whaaat theee?" He asked the excitedly vibrating, pinging and flashing device as he checked the back. It danced its dance, sung its song and then - just as it had begun - it stopped. Except now there was a call, a call that had answered itself and on speaker-phone he heard her shriek.

Spinning it around as the call ended he was met with two words for a split second before the light went out: "Iiii'm baaack!"

* * *

The handle beside her rattled, twisted and the door swung open as if thrown by a hurricane. Beyond stood a tall, medium-built man with alopecia for facial-hair and a demeanour of grim determination.

"Diego! Come on in." He drawled his words, not even making eye-contact as he disappeared again; another part of his erratic appeal.

-He'll be the one to do it! He's always feared you, always felt threatened!- The moaning never ended, but it seemed so plausible; her direct superior was well aware of everything she stood to take from him. If anyone wanted her gone...

~And so he should! You've always been better than him, ALWAYS!~ The confident voice boasted as proudly as ever.

She loosened up her shoulders and strolled into the well-furnished office beyond. Well furnished, she had come to appreciate, took on a whole new meaning down here: everything was steel and concrete, hence the faintest sign of wood or colour was extravagance.

"Take a seat." Donna approached the near side of the desk. The face she delivered to the outside world was one of consummate ease, of cool under pressure and she showed it to her superior officer. She wore a winner's smirk even as she sank into the chair and feeling like she were being swallowed whole.

She watched her boss with outward curiosity and inward terror as he paced around behind his desk for a moment. Quite visibly thinking as though he were alone in the room, his eyes up to the ceiling as he formed his words.

~Not exactly beaming with joy, is he? Bet it's the promotion! You should probably sit in the other chair, it'll be yours soon!~ The woman opened her mouth as if to speak, but held her words in.

"Now, Donna..." He said, finally turning.

"Carl?" She encouraged, unflappable at a glance

-That expression... is he usually this tense? He's not normally this tense! He's up to something!- Arguments and counter-arguments ricocheted around her head so loudly she had to struggle to hear him continue.

"Let me get to it: Whatever we may think of one-another, I can't deny you're the best I've got... and I've got some damn good people down there!" He made eye-contact and evidently wished he hadn't, her almost ferocious green eyes ate into him with something unspeakable behind them.

Her tiny smile cracked into a beaming grin of pride, "Thankyou, sir." She extolled, lapping the praise up.

Carl broke away for a moment, sitting and opening a folder, flicking through to what he was looking for.

"That's why we have some... important details to discuss." He glanced up from the papers; Donna caught a glimpse of stuff about an incident earlier in the day, it had to come up sooner or later...

* * *

His arms actually hurt. He'd been at the wrong end of town for a web-sprint home and yanking every chord strained even super-powered muscles. He was sweating, furious, driven.

Spying his house as he rounded the bend he didn't stop to be discreet, change somewhere quiet and walk in; he barely even stopped before crashing through the bedroom window.

Within, the room was lit only by the blank screen of Mary Jane's computer on the desk; the lights were out and the only sound was that of a terrified crying. Spider-Man rushed to his love and slung himself down next to her, curled into a foetal position against the wall.

"MJ! Emjayemjaymj! I'm here, what happened? What did it do to you?" He tried to soothe her, she seemed to be in one piece - physically at least. He was one third relieved, a third furious and the rest? Just as afraid as her...

"P... P-P-P- Peter? I-I saw it! I saw it! On the screen!" Her hair was messy as if she'd been tearing at it and her eyes were shot full of wide-eyed terror. It wanted him and coming after MJ, it was gonna GET HIM!

"It's alright! It's alright, I'm here... I'll sort it." He clutched her shaking form for a moment and calmed her, gritting his teeth angrily.

He knew. He knew from the moment he saw the words on his phone who he'd be dealing with. As he rose to approach the computer he began to steel himself for a world of hurt.

He knew his old black suit, now coaxing others into becoming his terrifying doppelgänger, Venom, was alive and sentient. He knew it was even capable of playing tricks on his mind, but he'd also seen it grow and adapt in ways he could never foresee; what was its trick to TRY and kill him this time?

There was no sign of his arch-enemy in the room; it hadn't been here. He could feel MJ rise with him, gently touching his arm until he was out of reach as she stayed fixed to the wall.

He crept.

Slowly.

Poised.

Watching the blue screen that filled the room with light.

Almost there, poised for a jump scare his spider-sense couldn't warn him of.

"MJ-" He reached towards her. "MJ?" He turned to look, she was gone.

He turned back to the screen as it thrust out a lean, slick black hand that snatched him by the face.

* * *

"So I've got two reasons for calling you in here, Diego..."

-Two? Here's a medal... and a KNIFE in the back!- She almost twitched in dissatisfaction, angrily forcing that voice out of her head.

"Firstly... and most obviously... The incident today involving the specimen. I want YOUR version!" He forced the issue upon her.

"Alright: at 11:47AM I received word from the guards on duty around the containment facility-"

"YOUR... guards."

-Oh! Oh! Here we go! He's gonna put this all on you!-

"Yes... SIR... They were answerable to ME." Her tone carried the intended measure of spite. "-I received word that a catastrophic failing of the field holding the specimen had allowed it to escape. By the time I reached the Laboratory two of MY guards were dead and the creature seemed to be violently thrashing around free from its bindings."

"The report I have here says that without you three scientists wouldn't have made it out of there in one piece, your version?"

~Heroic saviour of the all important egg-heads, naturally!~

"Well that's fairly succinct. I saved them, end of." She simply responded, Carl almost dumbfounded by the bald-faced arrogance of the remark.

"God-damn, Diego... What, you want a ticker-tape parade? Considering two of your guards died today that's pretty brash!" Donna rolled her eyes and cast back her head.

"Have you looked at the pictures, chief? That black goo tore Briggs' spinal chord clean out of her! O'Shea... well... there are bits of him in places the cleaning staff might never reach! Not sure what I could have done for them." She admitted, eyeing her boss suspiciously, calculating what he could be lining up for.

"What's happening with the bodies?" He asked, at least trying to disperse a little of the tension.

"As per the policy on those directly affected by specimens, their bodies were immediately quarantined and subsequently incinerated at seventeen hundred hours. Case closed. Are we done?" Her CO almost collapsed like an ill-prepared cake.

"Diego... they were people for fuck's sake! Don't you have ANY modicum of human feeling left inside you? They were torn to shreds! In seconds! God DAMNIT, Diego, they were YOUR people! YOUR team!" He hammered the desk with his balled up fist.

~What a pity, never mind. Yawn!~ She wouldn't lose sleep over it, they were just people.

"Yes, sir, I do care. Briggs was a good combatant and O'Shea was as vigilant as any man I've ever met." Carl gawked at her.

"Seriously?!" He asked simply and shook it off with some odd amusement, "Has anyone ever told you... that you're a bit... cold, Donna?" He asked in an off-the-cuff kind of way.

-He reeeally doesn't like you!-

"If I MAY speak plainly..." Her boss offered an affable expression, inviting her to do so. "The loss of life in a high-risk security operation has to be prepared for both mentally and strategically: I don't believe for a second that I could efficiently manage security down there if I were to – as you put it – "care" for my personnel!" She was getting riled up, a cool head was never one of her strengths.

He took a moment to think, collapsing back into his chair. "That's... fair enough I guess." He stood, stepping to the side of his chair and turned his back. "Now..."

Donna huffed in agitation, 'I'm sick of answering to this clown!' She thought but spared him another glance and followed the flight of a second folder that hit the desk in front of her.

"The second reason I called you in." She took it and opened it with wide-eyed astonishment.

~Oh YES!~ -Nonono!- 'This can't be right!'


	2. Chapter 2

Donna felt so very peaceful, so... calm! It was quiet in her mind for the first time she could remember. Quiet... but not deserted.

As the restraints on the table were tightened around her, sealing her fate – be it death or otherwise – she looking with eyes full of curiosity into the tall tank that hummed with the electrical tone of a sonic containment field.

Within, suspended, was a being like only one she'd ever seen before. It had been a strange day to say the least and the glowing yellow liquid mass behind the glass was a wholly fitting cherry on top.

The thing bore something (if not much) in common with human features: arms, legs (or at least something akin to them) and eyes... big, alien, glowing white eyes that absorbed her attention every time she looked at them.

She found it a curious, unsettling thing to take in, yet somehow found it serene and beautiful. Her feelings were so detached from what she'd seen done by this creature's progenitor hours earlier, but disconnect was in Donna's makeup. Maybe that's why they'd chosen her...

It didn't speak to her - not how the voices did anyway – but she could feel its presence as though they were somehow... connected merely by eye-contact or presence; maybe that sweet humming tone she heard had something to do with it.

Donna didn't know what this thing would mean for her in ANY sense, but if it could calm her volcanic mind and give her this tranquillity then it was alright in her boo-!

"GAH!" Donna shrieked, an intense pain shooting down her spinal-chord as something cold and unwelcome punctured the back of her neck.

So focused on the pain was she, so wracked with agony that she barely recognised the scream the creature exerted. She felt the lash of water and shattered glass, she heard the screams of terror, she felt the pain subside.

" **HKSSSS-HKKK!"** The creature hissed threateningly, Donna all too soon aware that it was free and looming over her. It made darting, threatening movements towards the doctors who had scrambled quickly out of reach.

"Everybody out!" Came a command over the tanoy, "Sorry, Diego; you're on your own." Even if she was prepared for anything, the way that bastard said it and so coldly abandoned her made her seethe; the alien thing seemed to respond to this, hissing towards the observation deck.

She watched its defensive movements, felt its liquid weight pressing down on her; she couldn't escape it, but she wasn't in the least bit afraid.

She stammered a few nonsensical letters to describe her whirlwind of emotions and watched the creature's gaze swing down to her, its movement the kind of fluid only something so invertebrate could conjure.

Their eyes met, their minds followed as this being became a hypnotic focus for her entire being; her body tingled and raged in no way she could physically equate: not pleasure, nor pain, as if not even felt but imagined!

She heard, it heard, they heard, felt, smelt, saw, were a maelstrom of opposed flesh; alien, human, one together in a mind-fuck neither understood.

Silence... stillness... The doctors who had so hurriedly backed away mustered out of the door, leaving the liquid mummy strapped to the table alone in the room and watched over from a deck above.

The rolling slime of burning reds and oranges swirling through perfect blacks shaped itself into something more solid. The onlooking crowd studied screens and readouts, gawked and postulated as they took it all in.

Glowing magma-like yellows pushed through the black that had settled over her form. The colours grew into swirling fractals as if the shapes were conceived clearly yet sketched by an unskilled hand.

The amorphous, runny glob where her head ought to be smoothed over, her hair so matted within fell towards gravity in thick locks.

A humanoid form with all the additions these creatures were known to illicit shaped itself before the captive audience in the room beyond; they had made this thing, they had puts its pieces together, but not a one knew what they had really done.

"Mr. Mach?" Gestured a very important woman in a very expensive business suit. "Considering the specimen broke its containment field, I'll assume that you have contingencies?"

Carl only half turned away from the scene to speak. "Yes, ma'am. We managed to fit a control device and the room is fitted with a containment f..." Carl thought of this as he said it.

"Like. The one. On the tank... Ahh-huh!" She nodded and turned away from the scene, escorted out by her bodyguards.

"Well?" A white-coat asked, quizzically, looking to Carl for all the answers.

"She IS a quick learner." He shrugged.

* * *

Peter Parker was an affable kind of guy, always had been, felt he always would be. Few things 'got his goat'... Murder, child-abuse, ass-holes with wacky master plans, the usual. One thing especially REALLY got under his skin right now.

He contemplated it as he took a megaton force roundhouse-kick to the temple. Contemplated... No, he raged over it with bulging eyes and flushed skin. He was going to tear that piece of shit black costume off his girlfriend and flush it down the god-damned toilet!

Venom flashed her tongue all around as if tasting the air, standing tall and groaning as her hands rolled over her body. "We like your mate, Parker!" She goaded, watching him stand, balling his fists until veins presumably bulged beneath his suit.

"Venom... I'm gonna be real nice about this and give you 10 seconds to get off her OR I'm gonna get REAL mad REAL fast!" He heard her chuckle and it drove him crazier than ever.

"I wonder... should I defile her first... or throw her off a building THEN defile her?" He lost it, webbing was out of the question, thought was out of the question; he went ham.

He launched a punch clean into her monstrous, fanged face, throwing her into a spin and down hard; "GRAAAGH!" He screamed like a berserker, leaping in only to see Mary Jane's face look to him from within the black-blue mass, surprise and horror in her eyes, "Tiger?" She all but begged, watching his attack fall to bits.

They collided and crumpled, Spidey's mind a mash of emotions; he reared up, almost crying and threw a punch into her downed gut. It was her alright: her voice, her body (sort-of) and her blood coughed up as she laughed between punches.

"GET OFF HER! GET OFF!" He screamed, exchanging punches in their emotional, downed states.

"HOHOHOOO, this is TOO MUCH FUN!" She laughed aloud, her voice distorted by Venom's influence.

"Fine!" He thought, thinking on his feet and driving back his rage; he rolled up and back. "You want one-another? Neither of you can ever have ME!" He turned away and walked full-angry.

"N-n-n! NO!" He heard their clash behind him as he reached a foot onto the lip of a building.

"If you think I'll ever have you back now, Venom..." It worked. The symbiote tore itself swiftly off Mary Jane.

"NO! NO!" They cried out as they tore asunder, the symbiote winding serpent-like off the building edge with MJ still reaching for it "Don't leave m- m...?"

"M... J?" Her boyfriend asked, clearly worried and more than a little confused. She seemed to gain her senses.

"Peter? What... what happ-? OH! OHHH! Oh god!" She sprang up as quickly as she could and hurried over to him, "Are you alright? Did I hurt you?!" She worriedly asked.

"I was about to ask the same thing." She saw his smile as he removed his mask; the huge bruise over the side of his face was nothing that wouldn't heal.

"Wait..." She stopped for a second. "Did you just... offer me to-"

"Hahaaa! Let's not talk about that!" He tried to brush it off.

"No! Peter! You-" She looked mad.

"Mary Jane... Listen to me." Serious face on. "I lived, wearing that creature and all its bad habits, dark thoughts and near-suicidal tendencies for months... It tried to kill me when I was wearing it, it's still trying to kill me today!" He extolled. "Do you WANT a crazy stalker ex trying to slit your throat at any given moment of the day?"

She paused to consider this. "Feels good though, don't it?" She blushed as she admitted.

"Tcheah..." He sighed with a chuckle, feeling her lock arms with a chuckle; their relationship was never dull, that much was for sure!

* * *

'Sooo gooood!' Donna Diego rocked in power bliss as she stood from the table she'd effortlessly shattered the hardened steel shackles of.

-They're gonna hate us for this!- They were back.

~So they should! We're a fucking GOD now!~ The same ideas, but very different delivery.

She raised a hand and splayed her fingers, clenching a fist she felt could mush skulls and seemed eager to do so. 'Alright, so... Super-powered alien fetish goo: check! Loony voices in our head: check! Ridiculously skilled bandmaster: we'd say we're about ready to do something fun!'

It occurred to her that she was speaking of this mysterious 'Us/We' all of a sudden; she'd resisted that temptation for years, but now... it was clearly different, she consoled herself.

And boy WAS it different; her voices seemed stronger than ever, much to her chagrin.

When her apprehension spoke it wasn't just a voice anymore: her whole mind saw danger in every corner! When her arrogance called, the whole world glowed with potential and her mind screamed to have it!

She stood, disoriented, while curious and studious eyes watched her through plate glass.

"How you feeling there, Diego?" Her eyes stared through the one-way glass straight at Carl as his voice boomed through the speaker system.

"How am I feeling? Hmhmhm!" She chuckled to herself, feeling power course through her body. "Take a good look, Mach!" She raised her arms, tensing and bringing to life the hovering, waving flame that her hair tendrils had formed.

"I-uh... OK, now THAT's pretty impressive." He commented 'Is it?' She asked inside his head "WAH!" He called out, recoiling back. ~Mmm, this is new...~ She heard her voice comment as if it knew something she didn't.

"What's wrong, Mr. Mach?" The scientist by him asked, intrigued.

"I-I heard... I..." Donna rolled her fingers into a fist aimed at him, making him quiver. 'You feel threatened by us! You've always felt threatened by us!' She was in his head; not invading, not discussing: commanding!

'Now THIS is a power worth having!' She chuckled devilishly as she played with her boss' bonce.

"Brain waves are off the charts, what is she doing?!" Asked a scientist by a screen.

"Something's messing with the microphones... Is... Is...?" Another stammered and slowed.

'Hmhmhmhmhmmm.' Donna echoed through the minds of every person in that room, throwing her hands down and her chest out, striding potently towards the window.

They were all but frozen, drooling puppets on aural strings; whatever power she and this new symbiote had tapped into demanded exploration! The being intrinically knew about its tendrils, its shape-shifting and its superhuman capabilities, but this was a fun little mystery they weren't supposed to have access to!

The "observing" scientists' minds were sifted through, each of them reliving every memory, every word of every thought about her in full colour surround-sound. Donna's obsessive need for verification had her self-gratifyingly sieving their minds for any thought of bitterness towards her, any hint of hatred.

'We will know all you have hidden!' She threatened, her hair coiling up behind her, splitting and forming spear-like extensions that she thrust with a grunt through the hardened glass between them.

Effortlessly raising a foot to the hip-height frame she all but grew into the room. They realised they were passing through a sonic containment field, the kind installed to control these entities, but it didn't phase them at all. She stopped to gaze over her puzzle-boxes, her mane returning to its dance on an ethereal breeze.

-Yes! Yes! We must know everything! If they hate us even at all we're in danger; make them tell us!- Her mind bounced excitedly; her new, seemingly innate echo-telepathy implanted thoughts, extracted responses, her need for assurance overriding her own better senses.

Carl found her stood in front of and towering over him (was she always that tall?) Her form was as alien and soul-shatteringly terrifying as anything he had ever seen: deepest gloss jet black skin sprawled with the incandescent yellows and reds of a searing heat that she didn't emit.

Her eyes met his, his mind unfolded into those flat lenses of emptiness and the fangs – oh god the fangs – seemed to suck his mind clean out of his head! She smiled and released him.

"Guagh!" He cried as he crumpled to his knees semi-conscious. Donna paced in long, elegant strides that exuded the limitless self-confidence she'd found. She examined the field of suspended people for a few moments, tasting the low-hanging fruit of their basest desire. Something pricked her ears, she span to face the offender keen to find out what thing could really do!

-HIM! HIM! He thinks I'm evil and must be destroyed!- Donna smiled within the symbiote, she registering its game. The others crumpled around her, each – like Carl – held in an almost catatonic state by the siren song exuded from her alien suit.

She slid between others to this being who watched her with sweaty, terrified realisation as every moment of disagreement, however tiny grumble, however private was played back and accentuated. 'You hate us...' She spat in his mind, 'Your mind does not trust what your eyes see AS A GOD...' She roared her claim to goddesshood in a way that shook the inner walls of his being.

She became more and more threatening the closer she got. "-ubl-degjuble-gub-" The untrustworthy egg-head spat gobbledegook in his dread, quivering against her control. 'Perhaps, then...' He couldn't look away from her eyes (they drilled through his SOUL!) They grew closer and burned brighter as if fuelled by a ferocity beyond comprehension.

Her hand, slick and alive with the tentacles of her symbiote's imagination lifted towards his face and slowly unfurled, clamping around his mouth. '-You need a new mind!'

He felt it... crawling through his nasal cavity, growing deeper and deeper as his eyes rolled back into his head; she would not relent, despite his muffled screams! Donna's alien-cloaked face become the vision of delight: her rows of fangs, huge and deadly curled up into a devilish grin. Her jaws parted to open into a searing inferno of demonic light and a chuckle that grew into the meaning of sadism.

Donna watched his eyes flickering under his eyelids as he quivvered, she felt her Other deposit something only a mind so devoid of trust could conjour and she withdrew it. Her hand was trailed by the lobotomy tendrils as her mood lightened and her stance softened.

As if with a flick of her fingers, her spell broke as she perched herself against a desk, the whole staff snapping out of it without so much as an inkling as to what had happened.

"D-Donna!? How did you?" Carl asked, shocked to spy her in the room, glass littered over the floor beneath him. He stood as the alien peeled away from her face and flame hair, revealing her confident, ever-so-pleased expression.

"Meh, don't worry about it, Mach..." she shrugged, "I get lonely easily, so I thought I'd cooome... help with the research!" She smiled helpfully; even with the suit's mask off, HER mask never faltered.

* * *

"Relax, Tiger!" MJ encouraged agitatedly. Peter was ill at ease and had been since he'd swung them home the previous night. She turned his head towards her, laid parallel on the bed "I know what happened was... not ideal-" She stressed the last word, "But we walked away from it!"

"Nnng!" He groaned in disagreement, squinting towards the window as the sunlight poked in.

"Besides..." She rolled half on top of him, "I DID say I'd wear something exciting last night!" She purred with a giggle that loosened him up. "Come on, talk to me."

"I'm just... worried." He admitted his feelings, looking to her with a jaded expression. "What if it comes for you again? What if..."

"Pete..." She stopped him, "-if it does, we'll fix it. You're my hero, remember?" She smiled and kissed him.

"Yeah." He smiled, "I just can't help the feeling."

"I know what you mean..." She replied wistfully. "When it... TOOK me, I felt so helpless, like I couldn't resist it, yet..." He waited, letting her finish; something had been bothering him and part of him hoped this would wipe it away. "-I got to feel what it's like to be you... just for a little while. So much power, so much..." She cut herself off "How do you do it, Pete...? Control yourself?" She was genuinely curious and clearly ready to talk at last.

"My Uncle Ben once told me that-"

"With great power comes great responsibility? Yeah, I've heard." She smirked, "Is that it though? What about... me?" She asked, stroking his suited chest. He was genuinely shocked and sat up a little, resting on his elbows.

"What... what do you mean?" He asked in an insulted-sounding way; her expression shifted over several seconds. Mary Jane pulled away from him and rolled over, out of bed. "MJ?" He asked, rising behind her.

"It's nothing." She dismissed and left the room.

'What does she mean? Does she want me to do it all for her? That's not how it works! Does she mean: how should SHE control herself? Huhhh...'

When Spidey walked into the living room, he found MJ perched on her hands by the sink, head stooped.

"Hey-" He said, hands touching her sides; she startled and turned slowly, leaning back against the counter, arms folding. "It's your turn to talk to me... Is it what happened with the symbiote?"

Her face skewed up, "No, Peter... it's NOT about that." She looked him dead in the eyes as if searching for something. He had no response. "Sometimes... Sometimes I just wonder what's really holding you together!" She enigmatically said, getting no response. "Your Uncle died 3 years ago, Peter! I know it was hard on you, but... part of me thinks you're still the same man you were then, it's as if..." She sharply drew breath.

"I..." Her face said she disapproved of being interrupted.

"Do you even care about anything I say, Peter?" She bluntly spurted out.

"What? Of course I do! MJ, I love you!" He pleaded with wide eyes.

"That's not what I asked." Her expression stern, "How many times have you asked for my help to deal with problems?" She asked, knowing it was a lot, "How much of that do you even remember?" She asked sorrowfully, "I feel like I'm just a tool to you; something generic you can come home to. Am I just your trophy, Pete? So you have something to congratulate yourself with when you come home?" He knew her, this was not her; something big was eating away at her and it wasn't what he thought of her; she was too strong to care about anyone's opinion.

"This IS about what happened earlier, isn't it?" Her eyes began to well up as she turned her head down, "MJ..." He pulled her chin back up, "-you're the best friend I've ever had. When I've been strong and when I've been weak, you've been there for me. When I finally told you about my powers you could have walked away and never looked back... And I wouldn't have blamed you. You've been through hell for me, I know! It must have been unbearable for you, I can only imagine. You have to believe me that I couldn't BE who I am without you!"

She began to cry as he clutched her. "I'm so scared, Peter!" She sniffed, "I don't WANT a hero, I WANT to be safe! Everything going on in the world and I'm... just..."

"I know! I KNOW!" He comforted, there'd been more in her final words to Venom than she'd admitted, it had impressed upon her heavily in those few short minutes together. Peter almost felt like this was the symbiote's plan all along, this was what it meant to be 'hit where it hurt'... and he HATED it! "I can't give you this power, MJ and truth is if I could, I don't know that I would! I'd give it to someone else, someone I hated so they had to deal with everything, so they would have to never be weak. This power doesn't make me happy... YOU DO and I'll do everything I possibly can to keep you safe, I promise!"

She looked up to him, wavily smiling. "Thank-you. I know you will!" She squeezed him tight and lifted to kiss him.

The disturbance of a buzzing sound in the bedroom pricked his ear and he looked towards it eagerly, "Go on..." She said, recognising the expression. "They need you too and I guess I can share..." She droned jokingly and blew him a kiss.

* * *

"Oh there is MASSIVE potential in the project, Mr. President." The glow of the huge screen danced on the Life Foundation director's face. "You know as much as you need to for now, but trust me, I know what I am doing."

"Can these creatures genuinely be controlled, Ms. Wentworth? They have... history." A face on-screen before her asked, she smiled knowingly in response.

"Oh of course they can! They just require the right person to wield them in the proper fashion." She exuded confidence as always, one of the many weapons in her arsenal.

"Such as?"

"The personnel and intricacies of the project are solely my concern, Mr. Osborn." She put him in his place, "All I need from you is a guarantee on your end of the bargain."

He cleared his throat, "It's no small task, you understand this?"

"Nor is altering the political landscape of an entire country, 'Mr. President'... or should I say, Mr. Goblin?" She bluntly replied, watching him grimace at this mention. "The arrangements will be easy to make once everything is in motion."

"Yes... yes of course I appreciate that you have delivered everything I asked and more, but... just what do you hope to gain from it? I mean... war?!"

"You understand the Life Foundation's goals, Mr. Osborn, you wouldn't be on the list otherwise..." She responded impatiently; "The time is drawing near, young man; I trust you'll make sure your pieces are in their places?"

"Of course. Yes." His head hung a little, "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a speech to prepare." He bitterly stated.

"You certainly do, Mr. President. Do us proud." She smiled sinisterly in the rising automated light as the call ended.

Spinning in her chair, the scheming director cast her head back and stared into space, contemplating her next move.

A buzz on the intercom alerted Ms. Wentworth; "Speak." She bluntly ordered in response.

[Ms. Wentworth, as per your request for updates: Agent Scream has encountered resistance from pockets of police and security, but states they have been duly neutralised.]

"Excellent, and are the general results promising?" She asked, now standing over the desk.

[Our telemetry shows over 200 confirmed kills and- hold on...] She waited as patiently as any mastermind could, [-Ma'am, Agent Scream is reporting that Specimen One has engaged her; orders?]

She smiled broadly, sensing an opportunity, "Termination; and if she can bring me back a sample... that would be ideal!" She released the button and chuckled under her breath, this was all turning out splendidly!

* * *

The stench hit him first, square in the gut; the silence followed. This was a mall... WAS a mall...

The design Spider-Man had committed to for his boots was not often high on his list of priorities, but reeling back as he felt moisture soak through the sides he gave it a bump up the leader-board.

The flickering of a nearby broken fluorescent tube showed him what he feared, causing him to gag a little.

He'd seen a lot of traumatising things, seen people lying dead in the streets thanks to the Green Goblin, personally put a stop to Carnage and his killing spree, it was the same... all over again! Whack-jobs with super-powers, because one or the other wasn't bad enough! Why now, though? After HELPING him defeat Carnage, why had Venom suddenly snapped like this?!

Distantly, he heard the crooked, distorted voice of alien clad to man; it couldn't be mistaken. Nor could alien clad to... woman? Another voice? Another-

He rounded a corner into an atrium brought to utter ruin, piled high with the bodies of innocent shoppers: men, women and children and amongst it all, his quarry! He had to look away, this was horrific.

"VENOM!" Spidey screamed once he'd settled himself, pacing forwards furiously. Gazing through rubble down the length of the court as he marched a couple of steps, he watched the hulking mass of black-blue muscle stagger and fall to one knee. The symbiote colours stripped from his body as if it were being blasted away by some ferocious wind, a high-pitched ringing in his ears said it all. 'A sonic weapon? Who?'

The voices were clearer now: a woman was talking, laughing; stepping over some rubble he spied her. His eyesight wasn't perfect but even from here he could see the defining attributes of another god-damned symbiote! He sighed a dishevelled sigh, broken-bones city again for his vacation!

Just like the other two, this one had its own style: yellow, black and gradients between along with a flailing head of hair... or barbed-wire or something nasty he couldn't quite make out.

As his pace slowed cautiously, he watched that huge head of hate – writhing and alive – strike out and into Venom as a wall of filaments that drew a blood-curdling, very human cry. Her hands raised, threateningly, shapes indistinguishable from here reaching out to the big guy.

"HEY!" He called out, picking up the pace and breaking into a run. Spidey sprinted as fast as he could, leaping to use a web-swing to throw himself forwards; he didn't. He pulled out of it, stumbled and fell as though his powers had been stolen from him in an instant.

From a half-knelt position he asked aloud "How?! How could you DO THAT... to another human being?!" His head spun, his guts thrust breakfast towards his throat, he dare not even look but he could hear the shrieking of the poor unfortunate guy and this woma -no, this MONSTER sadistically laughing!

He gathered himself and rose, meeting eyes with her down the hall. His stride fortified, he pushed his fear down along with his memories and thoughts of what surrounded him; he faced her up as adrenaline pushed him on.

"Well, well..." She vocalized, watching his every movement, her eyes as fast as his, her movements faster. "-another unexpected guest; you idiots are just lining up for the hit parade!"

"I don't know who you think you are, but THIS... is gonna stop!" He gesticulated around him, feelings of facing up to Carnage rushing back into his head along with a ringing in his ears as she squinted angrily at him.

"Oh and it WILL!" She strode forwards, splaying her fingers, savage barbed claws stretching out of each fingertip as her hair wove violently around her. "All it needs is a grand finale!" She laughed to herself as her foe darted in.

She may have been an unknown quantity, but Spider-Man was under no illusions having seen his arch-enemy slaughtered before him; she was good! Not 'from practise beating up ne'er-do-wells' good, 'highly-trained hand-to-hand fighter' good and it showed!

For her part, Donna knew she'd crawled under his skin and let him land on her block as he thrust forwards; she rolled him to the side and struck upwards with a knee she wished she'd laced with spikes as it thrust the man into what remained of the level above.

Spidey landed hard on the second storey, but rolled back to his feet just in time as this new foe appeared over the mezzanine, all claws, blades, fangs and sharps of every flavour! There was no blocking an attack like that, so he dodged with a dive to the side as concrete dust exploded behind him.

Carnage had possessed his fair share of weapons and Peter Parker sometimes laid awake at night wondering how he'd lived through that encounter. This, though... this was different, a whole new level of nasty! This wasn't a big-ass axe that either would or would not take his head off, this was a thousand infinitesimal wires designed to snag, rend and shred his flesh for pain and impairment.

He righted himself and cast streams of webbing towards her; Donna was just as quick, seizing his webbing with her hand as she span, yanking him in.

Thankfully for him it took her a few split seconds to organise her locks of slaughter and he was nimbly able to clobber her in the face with a full-force boot.

As Spider-Man flipped up off her he thought to press the advantage, his head suddenly ringing with a paralysing pain as he realised the peril of his situation. His Spider-sense did nothing and his reactions seemed mired or blocked; regardless the filament-tendrils of her hair came from every angle; reactions or none, this was it!

"EEYAAAAAARGH!" He screamed with all his might. He'd felt pain; the pain of broken limbs, of punctured lungs and even a nearly gouged-out eye, but this was beyond pain! This carved right through him as easily as those barbed-wire fibrils did!

He couldn't escape, he couldn't fight; every time he grabbed one to snap it off, another three pierced his skin, endless reels of torment that felt like they were bunching up and liquefying his insides! Donna clenched her hands as she felt the give in his body, each extension of her Other squirming into his soft flesh, slithering between ribs, lacerating organs. She half turned her head to enjoy his squirming out of the corner of her eye.

"You know, if you just hadn't bothered us you could have lived! We're only here shopping for shoppers; still... We're not one to stare a gift-spider in the mouth!" She goaded euphorically. It's true, this wasn't planned, but she'd definitely take it!

Spidey's strength and powers had been undermined by shear force of dexterity, this was it, he was a worm on a hook, he was dead meat and it terrified him!

[Agent Scream, withdraw at once! I repeat: Withdraw at once! Your mission is complete and we need that sample!] Her earpiece lit up with the voice of Carl back in the control room.

~Really BAD timing, ass-hat!~ Her symbiote hissed.

-But they might cast us out if we don't go! Think of our future! THE future!- It disagreed with itself as the tendril assault stopped, holding her victim dangling above her.

'I can't BELIEVE this shit!'

Donna inhaled deeply and shrieked her fullest at her suspended, writhing foe.

It wasn't a sound-wave that hit him, it was a shock-wave; smashing the wind out of what was left of his lungs, assaulting bursting his eardrums and drawing a cry of agony that he felt rather than heard. He felt every strand of symbiotic wire leave how they'd entered, unfurling like fishing-line through his lacerated entrails.

He bounced, barely feeling it, off a pillar across the hall with a splatter from each of his dozens of new orifices; he'd heard words amidst it all: Scream, sample... it didn't matter, he doubted he'd live to tell anyone. He hit the ground hard and heard the thumping of his desperate, failing heartbeat reverberate through his carved up form. He felt darkness wash over him, this was it... The End.

Atop the upper level Scream tensed her form with violent, destructive results; tendrils carved the marble and remaining glass around her, she was NOT happy!

"Fuck off, Carl! We've got PEST problems to attend to!" She cried at the microphone held within her Other's mass, pacing around agitatedly. The symbiote had learnt already that Donna liked a good temper tantrum and fuelled the fire.

[Negative! Withdraw immediately! The Spider is NOT a priority, repeat: NOT a priority!]

"NYEAAAAAGH!" She screamed in frustration, destroying everything in a 10 foot radius.

~Ignore it, our host! KILL HIM NOW!~

-No! No, we need to go! Remember the plan, this was just a test, we can get him next time...-

"SHUT UP! The lot of you! Just SHUT UUUP!" Donna cried aloud, forgetting the captive audience down the mic now alerted to her inner turmoil.

-Donna... they heard everything!- Her voice panicked, desperate and terrified; she realised all too late, a million thoughts rampaging through her brain.

'No! NO!' She clutched her head.

[Agent Scream... Agent Scream!] She huffed and heaved, she'd have to explain this... she'd have to... to-

"Where did he go?!" She asked aloud, glaring to the splatter below where her enemy had landed, deserted. "No! NOOO! HE GOT AWAY!"

~He... took our glory! WE should take HIM instead!~

[AGENT SCREAM! Withdraw! That is a direct order!]

In her mind Scream painted a picture of her superior officer, painted a picture of screams and pain and pleas for mercy, the kind she'd heard over and over all morning: HIS would be the most delicious! She'd been denied a victory she didn't even expect, but it made her so VERY mad and she'd make him so VERY sorry!

She growled with quivering rage and slowly stood tall.

'God damnit!'

-We do not need that creature dead... we need the Foundation. They are our future, we must go!- her voice reasoned with her.

"Roger that..." She scowled at length, "Exfiltrating now." She confirmed and sighed, taking another look at the final bloody splatter of the engagement; something wasn't right but now wasn't the time.


	3. Chapter 3

They moved out of her way; the look on her face, the shifting sharps pointing out of every angle, the fury behind her eyes all said the same: Donna Diego was NOT to be fucked with!

~Find that piece of shit, Mach! Tear him to pieces!~ She heard demanded aggressively.

'Oh I plan to!' She affirmed, her other voice mysteriously absent while she fumed like this.

The corridors of the Life Foundation weren't wide enough for some staff to get sufficiently far out of her way; her symbiote was pulled back to the neck-line but it wasn't needed to send danger signs out when Donna herself wore THAT expression.

She didn't wait for the sliding automatic door into the control room to open, she pushed it open as she stormed in. "MACH!" She screamed, her symbiote crawling up her hair and over her head until it framed her face. Carl turned to her at the front of the room, his expression switching to a realisation of fear.

Lunging in, she took him by the throat and pinned him to the wall, dangling inches off the ground. "You piece of shit!" She spat, holding her Other back from her face; this one was hers! "We could have done away with that insect then and there! He's a pain in the ass and we had the chance to deal with him!" She demanded, her face so close to his she could feel the panicked breaths he managed on her skin. He grabbed her wrist in both hands, trying to loosen up his throat to speak.

"W- We... need-ed..." He hoarsely protested, beginning to turn blue. Donna watched him motion to a scientist watching on, holding a controller he looked too petrified to use. "Do... it-!" He demanded. She turned to look Carl ferociously in the eyes as the device made an affirmative bleep.

Everyone waited, nothing happened until Scream began to chuckle under her breath. A tendril of her hair reared from behind her holding a tiny device, "Looking for something, 'Boss'?"

Panic became him, Donna keeping him sufficiently throttled to not die, but still squirm. "Now, Carl..." She huffed, "-you weren't thinking of trying to... remove us, were you?" She asked in an inquisitive, humoured kind of way as she squeezed a little, careful enough to not pop his head off just yet; "We're quite the investment you see, quite... important to the future of this project! We'd go so far as to say we're ESSENTIAL! We really don't think you can say the same..." She bragged.

The wire feeler crushed the little contraption that didn't even pop when she did so. "Aww, it's a dud! Even if my Other hadn't cut it out of me within moments of our bonding... this was going to be a VERY bad day for you!"

~Make. An. EXAMPLE of him!~ Her symbiote cried at her.

"Were you hoping for fireworks?" She looked across the terror-frozen scientists around the control room, "Fireworks, anyone?" She turned back to him and struck his face with the palm of her hand.

The effect was everything a super-powered psychopath could ask for: sledgehammer meeting watermelon, tomato meeting boot-heel, a decorative pattern radially splattered across the wall.

"Happy fourth of July!" She concluded, tossing the beheaded body aside and striding away. "That's what happens when you fuck with the Master Plan, people!" She roared.

~We ARE the Master Plan!~ Her other buzzed excitedly, eyeing up eggheads she passed as they wiped and shook bits of Carl off their coats in abhorrent disgust.

"You HAVE been warned!" She threatened mid-swagger, tearing the remains of the door off as she left.

* * *

Laughter, roaring laughter!

Jagged, cruel fangs!

Burning, lifeless sheets for eyes!

Spikes.

Fire.

Hate.

Spikes!

Fire!

Hate!

SPIKES!

FIRE!

HATE!

"MUU-AAAH! WUUAGH!" Peter Parker squirmed violently where he lay, lost between the waking and the sleeping, his nightmare so real it chased him into the land of the living.

"Peter! Peter, oh god, relax! Relax!" Mary Jane was all over him almost instantly but was thrust away in his violent confusion. The red hair! The burning red hair!

She landed hard against the wall, her head clacking off the plaster hard enough to make her vision flash and her head loll.

It took a few moments of panic and heavy breathing, but sense returned and reality kicked back in. "Oww! Peter, you asshole!" She complained loudly, feeling for soft spots along the back of her skull.

"Wh-what?" He asked, panicked eyes settling on the downed woman. "MJ?!" His usual worried response came with a failed attempt to sit up as body-wracking agony took his body.

He remembered the mall as he collapsed back down and wished he could forget again, squinting in pain.

"Just... sit still!" Mary Jane Watson demanded, pushing herself up onto her knees, her head still ringing.

"How did I... get home? Last I remember, I was..." A shiver crawled up his spine as it all very visually played back... the demonic visage, the laughter, the... spikes!

MJ sat on the edge of the bed and relaxed a little. "Huh... you look how I feel." She commented, drawing his gaze as she rubbed her head again.

"Wh-What happened to your head?" She looked at him blankly.

"Oh, well! Let's see here: I've been playing the good nurse all day, tried to calm you down when you were having another nightmare and you THREW ME INTO THE WALL!" She snapped, clearly agitated.

"I WHAT?! Oh my god, I'm so sorry! I don't even-" She softened her expression to a sympathetic one.

"Sorry, look... tchyeah that hurt, but it could be worse." She admitted, her eyes filling with concern. "How are you feeling?" She sighed, looking tired.

"I'm... hurting!" He groaned, shifting uncomfortably in his prone state.

"Well that's no big surprise..." She looked him in the eyes, her face a picture of concern. She leant over and laid a kiss on his head, "I'm just glad you pulled through." She smiled bravely.

"Is it... that bad?" Her expression changed and she turned away a little.

"You hungry?" She asked, divertingly, "Thirsty?" she pressed, but could tell she wasn't getting away with it from the look on his face.

Mary Jane Watson sighed heavily, "Maybe... it'll all make sense once I tell you, but... It wouldn't let me see." She brushed up some courage as his eyes asked 'who?'. "But with all the cold sweats and nightmares, I'm not sure you'd still be..." she avoided saying it, "-if it weren't for the symbiote." His eyes widened in horror, looking down as the lounge pants and t-shirt he was wearing morphed into the familiar black-blue of the alien suit.

"WH-WHAT?!" He grabbed at it desperately, MJ not sure what to do, even if she'd consulted all of the options while he recovered.

"Stop, stop it, Peter!" She tried to pull his arms away, "It saved your life..." She pleaded. His eyes were a picture of distress, he could feel the suit's similar feelings, it was all so messed up!

"Wha-what do I? How did it-?" He clutched for answers, head spinning.

"You collapsed through the window around about midday." His girlfriend began to clarify "The news was still reporting on the 'Mall Massacre' as they're calling it. They said Venom was responsible, but then you come in wearing THAT thing and collapse like dead and... and..." She looked confused, worried, "All day you've been having these nightmares, calling my name, shouting 'Scream!' and 'Fire!' and 'Help!'" She tried to explain, "What happened in there?! 300 people dead?!"

"Scream..." He remembered the name and with it the glowing symbiote, all barbs and hatred. "Scream happened!" The way he said it (near reverently) touched Mary Jane in spine-shuddering ways, "Another symbiote: stronger, faster... she had POWERS... powers this suit and the Carnage one never did!"

Mary Jane listened to the disjointed, confused answer, "She? The cameras didn't see any of that, they just said 'alien', but some of the witnesses said it WAS a woman. They said you went in and never came out, but..." She thought for a second, "They're gonna be hunting for the symbiote now... More than usual!"

"So... get rid of it?" She gawked at this.

"No! You can't! Not after it saved you like that... Besides, it does look good on you." She smirked, but it went down like a lead balloon. Another approach: "Remember what you always say: With great power come great responsibility? I think you've got some responsibility right here." Her hand touched his chest.

He furrowed his brow, "It's Monday, isn't it? I HATE Mondays!" he moaned and collapsed back with a heave.

* * *

-We shouldn't have done it... What if he was more important than us? He was probably more important than us!- Her voices whined on; her symbiote was hidden, disguised as something all-concealing from her wardrobe, but it was there and it's feedback only came in this flavour right now.

Donna was curled up, foetal on her cabin bed. What had she done...? All those people, she'd killed them all and didn't even care! She knew she should feel something: disgust, self-loathing, pride, ANYTHING!

All she could feel was emptiness, a void of emotion; regardless she wept aloud, alone in a blank, dreary underground chamber that might as well have been hell.

"Carl was an idiot, he was an idiot. Snff-" She reminded herself over and over, driving it into herself, trying to focus on anything she could.

-We're not important, they heard what we said on the radio! They know about us, about the voices!- She couldn't quiet the hatred it poured on her, on itself.

"They did... they heard it all!" She creased up in fear.

-And the Mall... the whole world knows we did it! We can't go anywhere, we can't be seen by anyone! They all hate us now!-

"No, no they FEAR us... that's better! SNIFF- We don't need them!" She told herself, she told her Other. "How..." She thought aside from these points, distracting herself. "How are you as broken as me, Other? You were supposed to cure me, make me better!" She wept, but it hurt more still when she sensed it feel pitiful thanks to her words.

~I can't fix you... You're too pretty, too smart!~ It suddenly encouraged, taking her by surprise.

"Wh-? SNFF" She sniffed in her tears, her eyes red with the toll it had taken.

~I'm sorry, Donna. I can't make you better because I'm weak. I'm pathetic! I'm disgus-~

She rolled over and sat up.

"No... No, you're so powerful!" She encouraged back, feeling a weight lift from her chest: she actually had someone to talk to, someone real and most importantly someone who wouldn't judge her or repeat anything! It encouraged her, she encouraged it and suddenly... suddenly she felt... good.

When she remembered the Other wasn't like the voices, that it was alive and had a body and power, that she could lift it up and it could lift her... She felt a completeness she didn't understand, at odds with the stark, cold loneliness that had marked her entire existence up to now.

"I'm not alone anymore..." She smiled bravely, tears of actual joy replacing those of doubt, "-you HAVE made me better... if even YOU-" She paused for a breath to think about everything the symbiote was and could do "-can feel like this, feel so helpless... maybe I'm not as hopeless as I thought!"

She felt the Other's gratitude and mutual feelings conjure in a tight, squeezy hug that made her so happy and lifted her from her dire pit of despair.

* * *

"You have to understand-" He pleaded, "-there have to be these rules!" Peter felt the symbiote disagreeing with him, vying for its wants.

\What about fun? You LIKE fun!/ It encouraged, chuckling and caressing him.

"Look! If you want me, even for a little while, you can't do what you did before... I am who I am and you won't ever change that!" He enthused to it in the quiet living room; it was a weird sensation to him, unlike anything he'd been through before. MJ wasn't here and he was talking... to himself. "God, I feel like I'm going CRAZY!"

\NO! You're not crazy! You're with me! MmmmMMM! Mineminemine!/ The black suit smothered creepily.

"Aaand THAT's what I'm talking about! I'm NOT yours! You're a SUIT for Christ's sake!" He balled up a fist; this was essential bonding MJ had told him, but he didn't like it and he certainly didn't like the costume!

It listened, attentively, hurt but getting no pity for its feelings. It learned, it grew. \I'm sorry./ It solemnly replied.

"Better." Peter smiled to himself: progress! He stood and approached the fridge. "Why do you need a mind anyway? A voice? I mean, your whole thing is to cling to someone and..." he shuddered, opening the fridge door, "-use them for what you need. Are you that... I dunno, hungry?"

\Becaaause... I want to live?/ It responded almost sarcastically, \Why do YOU have a mind when all you do it eat, sleep and punch stuff with those clumsy meat-hooks?/ It asked bitterly, this wasn't going well.

"Huuuuh..." Peter sighed, he didn't really have an answer to that. "Look, I mean... I'm not TRYING to be nasty or anything, but you're just a bit... WEIRD!" He bluntly said, "Lemme rephrase that: I'm a human, OK?" He picked a carton of juice out and went searching for a glass.

\OK.../ It replied with the emotional equivalent of a curiously raised eyebrow.

"Humans have thousands, hundreds of thousands of microscopic lifeforms living inside us; they do EVERYTHING, from breaking down food to combating infection to basically keeping us alive! In return, they get a safe, warm place to live: THEY are symbiotes, I am a symbiote with THEM, but they DON'T try and make me eat babies OR talk my girlfriend into BDSM!"

\She did seem interested though, amirite?!/ It sniggered churlishly.

He sighed impatiently, \You say all that... but I do all of the above AND make you bulletproof... does the bulletproof microbe have a mind?/

He clicked his tongue, it made a good point. "Right: I am a scientist! I find you interesting... from a biologist's point of view... but if you change the host organism, doesn't that make you a parasite?"

He heard it hiss, some part of his body physically exuding the noise of disgust. \I am NOT a parasite!/ It piercingly told him as he sipped his drink, a taste made all the more bitter by the symbiote's carnivorous tendencies.

"Ooh, touchy!" He smirked, feeling its derision. "But a parasite uses another organism for its own gain without returning the favour!" He stretched the definition.

\So you don't need me? You needed me when a certain fiery fucktard turned you into swiss-cheese!/ It scoffed.

"Oh really? I wonder... If I hadn't turned up when I did, what would she have done to you? I'm thinking back to baby number one here..." He recalled their combined efforts against Carnage, Venom's first offspring; they shared different perspectives of it, but the same general feeling.

\And there you go! Don't we cooperate when needs must? Symbiosis, see?!/ It clutched at straws, but they were getting nowhere.

"On that point..." He said tangentially, "What's the deal with Scream? Why bring another shrieking, murderous bundle of joy into the world after the last one?" He was genuinely curious.

\Well... if you MUST ask, I didn't have much choice! I was captured, held in a tank by a 'Life Foundation' and experimented on while doped with sound waves. My offspring must have been born then./

"Wait, so... She probably works for whoever did that?" It saw where he was going with this. "So if we find them... we find her!" He reasoned.

\And several hundred sonic-weapon armed soldiers ready for exactly that!/ It retorted.

"Ah... Well that's not a problem for me... Why do I need you again?" He thought. "Wait-" A scary thought hit him. He dropped the drink he was holding, glass shattering all over the floor. "If they extracted one symbiote from you... There could be MORE!" He shuddered at the thought, but found himself calmed by the Other's dismissiveness.

\A fair point, except we don't work that way./

"Oh-" He looked at his feet, the sticky orange and shards of glass would be far less fun to clean up than if they'd been from the cool kind of epiphany.

\Suffice it to say, we DON'T co-operate. If she's alive, any others I may have borne would not be! We exist to hunt one-another, it's how we evolve; can't fight it, wouldn't want to! It is how things should be. Besides, I can feel her... and Carnage somewhere a long way away... but that's it./ It didn't seem terribly keen to explore this any further.

"Wait, you can track her?!"

\No./

"Oh... OK nevermind." He sighed in relief; having the new stepdaughter around for coffee didn't sound too appealing.

"So I guess that's why you were there... and why you're here. She got you worried?"

\Wouldn't you be? We live to kill one-another, how YOU live to make fucky-fucky, see why I find your urges so strange and my offspring so hateful?/

"I guess so..." He realised he wasn't getting anywhere despite all this fascination; sure he now knew a bit more about this new foe and some nasty stuff about alien biology, but if he wanted to use the symbiote as he felt he'd need to, this wasn't progressive!

\So what do we do now?/ It asked encouragingly.

"What I always do, I guess. You're not gonna make me all psycho if I go do the hero thing, are you?" He felt it wrap tightly around him and slither over his head into a mask in a way that sent shivers down his spine.

\So long as it's fun, I'm game!/ The Other said, it was learning and it knew his rules needed to be followed, as much as it disliked that. Peter felt he'd got through to it, but only had one way to find out.

"Alright then!" He strode through the bedroom to the window, "I guess I'm back in black!"

* * *

"Donna! Thank-you for coming!" She bore a powerful voice, her guests appreciated that much as they entered the sizeable chamber of the Life Foundation Directorate.

"Director Wentworth!" Donna saluted, met in person by her big boss. She was middle-aged, maybe older, very well dressed with white shoulder-length hair and piercing eyes that traced up and down Donna's outfit: camo trousers, tank top and open bomber jacket; not what she'd envisaged.

"Donna! How many times have I told you to call me Dee?" She insisted by way of breaking the ice.

"Yes, Ma'am." She replied politely, "Ma'am, if I may... is this about Carl?" She had to know, it had been eating at her, the voice had chirped away ever since she'd been summoned.

The Director looked at her with a humour behind her eyes. "Mr. Mach? He was a loose cannon... an expendable asset." She confirmed, "When I discovered his plans to install that little..." She scowled a little, "-device... I had the relevant people ensure it would do you no harm. I've read the report, safe to say he had it coming, no?"

~What?! I thought-~

'It's alright. YOU saved me, don't worry about that!' Donna reassured her Other.

"We'd gathered as much; thank-you, Director." Ms. Wentworth seemed to find something interesting in this as she paused.

"Think nothing of it, my dear, now..." Donna could tell she was eyeing her up in curiosity. "You know what I'm thinking: is that it?"

-What does she want with us? Are we a weapon? A tool?- Donna smiled, calming her symbiote.

'She is a friend, Other. Like nobody else, we can trust her.' She'd met the director several times before; the way she'd always looked at her filled her with confidence that she had some kind of plan that she belonged to; she was one of the few people Donna felt any kind of confidence in, maybe more than in the Life Foundation's project itself.

She had her jacket disintegrate into tendrils that slithered back up her arms into her tanktop, revealing its potential for wardrobe functions. "Mmm! Fascinating! You seem to have gained control of the symbiote swiftly." Dee sat on a large L-shaped sofa and invited Donna to join her.

"Control? No, it's entirely mutual cooperation." Ms. Wentworth smiled broadly, curiously.

"Mmm, I can't tell you how much it intrigues me, Donna. You too." She flattered.

"It is an incredible thing, Ms. Wentworth. I have to thank-you for allowing me the opportunity."

The older woman laughed lowly, "There's more to it than mere opportunity, my dear." She smiled temptingly, "But we'll get to that... Drink?" She snapped her fingers above her head and Donna spied a tall man approach from the shadows, smartly dressed and very stern with an almost lifeless expression on his face.

"Yes, Ma'am?"

"My usual, Miss Diego will take a Rum and coke. Then you may leave us."

'My favourite? How did she?' She was looking knowingly back, Donna prepared to be enlightened.

~Why don't we just suck the knowledge out of her skull? Save us time AND sidestep any bullshit!~

'Hmm... No. We could, but that's the best part. She no doubt KNOWS we can so she has to tell us.' She thought gratifyingly to herself. 'Welcome to the world of human interactions, my friend!'

"Now..." Dee began, taking her drink and sipping it daintily, "You'll have plenty of questions and no doubt be shocked by some of my answers, but I hope you'll understand what I have to say:" She smiled knowingly, "Point one: You were ALWAYS destined to be the recipient of the symbiote, that's the reason I hired you."

Donna nearly spat up her drink, Dee not giving her a chance to respond before continuing, "I have planned for 2 years to get hold of such a creature, to learn of it, hopefully harness its power... for the good of all, naturally."

"Why me?" Scream finally responded through Donna.

"Because I know you are not alone." Ms. Wentworth smirked as Donna's astounded and puzzled look grew deeper. "Ask yourself, Donna: Have you ever seen the doctor who did your psyche test since that day? I mean, clearly he worked here, right?" Come to mention it, she hadn't. "Of course not, I had him liquefied once he put your test results on my desk!" She chuckled lowly.

~Ooh, we DO like her, you're right!~

"Point two..." The director took a moment to enjoy her drink, "The Life Foundation is not merely what you have come to understand. Yes, we ARE interested in creating a haven for the end of the world, but we are also interested in expediting it."

-End... the world?-

"How...? Why?" She simply asked; Dee's response of obvious delight said a lot. Most people would spit in anger at the mere idea, rage and rebel; this young thing wanted a sales pitch: delightful!

"How... You'll have a hand in that, but that's a subject for later. Why... Well, it's not exactly paradise out there for women like us, is it? We certainly can't do any worse! That's the simpleton's version, truth: why settle for less than building your OWN paradise?" Her expression rarely shifted, Donna found her to be consistent and always prepared; that soothed her doubts.

"The fact is this, my sweet: it is my firm belief that some of us have certain gifts for a higher purpose, YOU are one such person! My entire life I have dreamed of reaching Elysium, with your help we can't fail!"

-It- ca- b- - Her self-pitying voice strangled in her mind, plugged and attacked by such confidence from her big boss. It would be back, but Donna felt full of light as she beamed in response.

"I learned that the symbiotes speak as a voice in the host's head. Were we to combine your natural affinity with such things, your impeccable record and impressive skill, then well... we'd have the perfect host! And here we are..." She motioned grandly and sipped her drink, as calm and relaxed as can be.

~Perfect host...~ The symbiote said dreamily as Donna's hands caressed her symbiote's surface on her legs, its textile warping and wafting through her fingers like the fur of a contented pet.

"Point three: I'm intrigued by what you did with Dr. Reynolds! Hmm..." She wondered, glancing at a photo of the scientist Donna had taken a disliking to after the bonding. It made her queasy, no doubt but she always saw the potential in things.

~She does not doubt our actions, our motives?~

"Are you... Concerned?" Donna commented calmly, her expression not soft or apologetic. "I know how he likely looks by now and it is definitely deserved."

"You get me wrong, Donna. I am not perturbed by this, I am fascinated, excited!" She looked over the photo with curiosity; how could a person be so... "I wonder... Is it as it seems? How much can you... control it?"

"Enough to be of use to us." Donna coldly stated, Ms. Wentworth ever so pleased to hear that.

"That's just what I wanted to hear... If it is how it seems, this could streamline things immensely!" The Director was pleased, all about the end-game.

She was beginning to feel like her investment in Donna was a very well-made decision. Everything she had hoped and imagined the young woman would be, she was and maybe a little more beside.

"Final point of business... I hate business..." She muttered to Donna amicably, "I may be the director of the Foundation, but I do not have exclusive power over its operations. I wish to see this entity fulfil its potential; potential my partners are limiting. This would, of course, leave vacancies at the top of the food chain..." She looked purposefully towards Donna, "Knowing as I do your... appetites-" She stressed the word, "I'm sure you can make the arrangements?"

Scream smiled confidently, "It would be our pleasure!" Dee laughed aloud.

"Delightful!" She clapped her hands and relaxed, "That's the boring stuff taken care of, now I want to know all about IT!" She said excitedly, like a schoolgirl scrounging for gossip. "How does the symbiote FEEL? Was I right about you being a natural fit? I couldn't do it myself of course, can't STAND the sight of blood! Even the talk of- oh-" Dee stopped herself. "I'm babbling." She chuckled excitedly, Donna and her Other very amused.

"You don't like blood?" Donna raised an eyebrow, "Seems a little... odd for someone trying to end life as we know it?" Dee scoffed.

"I wish for a better world, whatever that entails. It is one of the benefits of being in my position: Some things I care not for I can leave to others. We're getting off track... the symbiote!"

'You're a celebrity, my Other. As you should be!' She told it comfortingly.

"Hmm, how does it feel...?" She wondered to herself how to explain it. "It feels... natural. I don't feel it ON myself, it's virtually weightless; I can't TELL I'm different, but I am! It's like I become someone else, someone more ruthless and powerful without having to actually change or grow." She explained, her director leaning in with fascination.

"And the mall? I know you're no stranger to bloodshed, Donna, but how was that?" She'd thought about how it had made her feel, about what she should think about it all; she had no way, no language to examine her actions now.

"It... wasn't the same." She admitted, "It wasn't LIKE killing people..." She mused on this, "People... matter to people, people CONNECT with people!" She remembered it all clearly, "When I wear Scream, when we're together in mind and body... we're not ME! We're not human!" She stressed with certain, unswerving conviction.

She shuffled back into the chair and caressed the symbiotic matter of her outfit lovingly, the things they had done should be abhorrent, but for some reason in her sickness she loved it! "It FELT... like we were a predator, a Lion! Hunting game animals... It's THAT different." Ms. Wentworth was fascinated, biting on every word, despite her last few meals hovering dangerously close to a second-coming.

Donna could tell Dee was feeling queasy, but continued anyway, feeling the caresses of her symbiote encourage her, love her for her passion. "Donna Diego didn't slaughter those people, she couldn't be bothered; SCREAM slaughtered them!" She emphasised, leaning in towards Ms. Wentworth as she spoke with ever-rising passion.

"Sure..." She held up a hand, symbiotic tendrils winding around her fingers, "-her hands were in the gloves that tore out every heart for the thrill; clothes don't kill people..."

She felt enraptured just talking about it, despite her apathy since the event; the tendrils formed into a solid black gleaming glove "But when Donna Diego BECOMES the clothes, she ceases to be a person and becomes..." 'A God...' She whispered it in her own mind but bit her lip and relaxed back leaving it unsaid.

"Donna does agree with Scream in one regard, however..." Dee was clutching a hand over her face her dinner had gone back down now she'd stopped talking organs and slaughter, but it bubbled away in the bottom of her throat ready for the conclusion: "She likes that we can eat so heartily and still keep our figure!"


	4. Chapter 4

Just another day, beep after beep, why did he take this job? For an aspirational young man certified in taking down fuck-nuts and psychos of every description, standing next to a detector at the entrance to a building felt as engrossing as scanning groceries in a store.

Oh, hang on! Yep, there's the reason! The chest puffed out, the cap was straightened, 'Ye-owch!' he thought, eyeing up the smoking redhead in the dress. She glanced at him through dark glasses with a seductive smirk that sent his heart racing. 'Come on, gimme the klaxon of denial!' He lustily hoped, imagining the chance to run his hand-held scanner up and down those curves.

She strolled by, whispering something under her breath; she turned her head forwards, her hair wafted back with a confident gesture. The detector flashed red, the klaxon he'd waited on blared, but nothing could distract the captive security guard, his mind awash with distraction.

"Mmm..." he lowly grunted a minute later, slowly coming back to reality. Maybe this job wasn't so bad after all. "Morning, Clive." He turned to attention as the VP hovered through, the young guard sorting himself out.

"Morning, Mr. Smythe." The hoverchair-bound man looked at him with a cocked expression.

"You feeling alright this morning, Clive? You seem a bit... flushed." He responded suspiciously.

"Oh? Yeah, I just..." He pointed and thought, but couldn't for the life of him think why.

"Rough night?" He nodded, that must be it. "Wouldn't want that to get in the way of that promotion you're hunting though would we, Clive? You've got a job to do after all."

"Of course, Mr. Smythe. Don't worry, nothing's getting by me!" He positively responded, mentally grumbling at the senior ass-hat.

"Good to hear... Clive." The senior man gnarled as he floated away with his usual scowl of disapproval.

Just another day, plans upon plans, experiments to conduct for that fat-cat above. He hated it, but for a career criminal with the sharpest of minds, he hadn't much choice when the kingpin of crime came calling.

As he floated into the elevator, he considered just missing the daily chore of the meeting with the big-man but he hit that button anyway.

"Nnngh- I really need to retrofit this thing, perhaps a supercharger would increase productivity through nausea?" He grumbled away. The same route, the same inevitable shouting match ahead, when did being bad become so... bad? Eventually, predictably, he reached the penthouse level with a sigh.

Downstairs, young Clive straightened himself up, 'Ye-owch!' he thought, eyeing up the smoking redhead in the dress. 'Mr. Fisk, you ol' dog!' he thought as she approached.

"Have a nice d-" His words stopped mid-delivery; her fingers had trailed out and brushed over his face as she passed; he nearly melted. Sure there were gloves between them, but somewhere in his head a connection was made.

Clive stared into space minute after minute, jaw slack with a bead of drool slowly trickling down to his chin. 'What happened? Don't care. Doesn't matter.' he mused as best he could; anyone could walk in now and he'd let 'em through, everything was gravy in the mind of Clive the secuit-?!

The intruder alarm blared, he startled and wiped the saliva from his face.

[All available personnel, the boss has been murdered! Be on the lookout!] Alistair Smythe's voice shouted down the radio.

'How? How?!' The detector hadn't picked up anything! He hit a button to bring metal shutters down over the detectors.

"Entrance locked down, Mr. Smythe! I'm on the lookout!" He reported proudly, listening to the chatter; well at least he'd done his job!

* * *

"Huhhh..." Spidey sighed, mid-swing, "It's been a long night, pretty tired..." He spoke aloud, not even realising he was doing it anymore.

\You want to head home?/ It seemed uncanny to hear that voice in his head, even now but he relented.

"I still can't believe I'm doing this... with you. Must be something wrong with me." He derided.

\I don't even know what I can do for you anymore.../ It responded, hurt; he shrugged it off.

"Other than not commit your life to murdering me, you mean?" He cast another web on auto-pilot. "You gotta admit, this is the weirdest ma-AAAGH!" He cried as suddenly his body moved of its own accord; he flew off at a tangent, "What the hell do you think you're doing?! We talked about this!"

\She's near!/ The Other hissed with spiteful intent.

Peter wrestled back control and flung himself to a rooftop, "STOP! Just stop! I don't care what's happening, you don't do that! Besides, I'm shattered! Do YOU feel strong enough to take Scream on right now?"

It hissed and seethed, ignoring him. "Well?"

\There!/ It directed his gaze across the street; sure as anything the female symbiote stepped out onto a rooftop, took a few paces and stopped.

"Oh here we go..." Spidey groaned as she faced him, turning. He leapt, he had to; before he could land, another figure stepped out, kitted out in riot-gear.

Scream did as her title suggests and her companion turned to the incoming Spider-Man, charging forwards insanely. He landed, leapt again and aimed a punch at her sidekick. They dodged, leaving him swatting thin air and turning to receive a clobber from a well-aimed truncheon that only tickled his spider-sense!

Scream turned away, she didn't have time for this; she approached the building edge, "We'd love to play, old man. Killing your hosts brings me no end of pleasure, but we've got bigger fish to fry! Ta-ta!"

She blew the symbiote equivalent of a kiss to the stunned hero before taking her leave. "SCREAM!" He called, about to leap when his other problem lunged towards him. Leaping up, he vaulted the sidekick and thrust them down to the ground face-first.

Spidey wasn't about to be made a fool out of again, turning sharply as his foe recovered faster than any unpowered human should.

"I don't know who you are, creep... but if you're with her, I'm taking you down!" By the time he'd said it, his enemy was already sprinting towards him, pulling back their weapon to strike. Spidey dodged, letting the swing fly past and struck with a punch held back so as not to break them in two, just in case this weirdo just happened to be fast.

He felt the give of ribs as his enemy stumbled, the only sound that of something like a hiss from beneath the face-obscuring helmet. The figure didn't relent and charged him again; "You don't learn-" He dodged a swipe with relative ease as his attacker went fully berserk, swinging that baton like a majorette lost in the moment, "-do ya?"

His emphasised phrase led a knee to the plexus with a little more force behind it. Spidey staggered back, 'Thaaat didn't sound good-' He cringed a little, his blow seemed to have all but crushed the figure's chest with the sound of crepitus and a feeling to go with it.

"The hell?" he asked as they just staggered then stood, horrible sounds coming from beneath that helmet, "I've got a feeling I'm not gonna like th-"

"IIIYAAAAAAAH!" Scream's trooper tore their helmet off and shrieked in an unnatural and deafeningly loud way, forcing Spidey to recoil; his symbiote wavered and peeled back from his head and chest defensively.

For a split-second, Peter heard things, things he didn't want in his head; commands, instructions and words he didn't have time to process. He felt his body begin to seize up in resistance to his urges and strike out against him, but Venom quickly coiled back around him, clearing his head.

"The hell was th- woah!" He caught sight of the creature stood before him, was it human? Once? If it WAS its eyes were gone; its teeth had stretched and filed to nasty, jagged points; its skin was as pale as snow and sucked tight to the bone as though Spider-Man stared some terrifying living skeleton in the face!

\What has she done?!/ the other hissed in horrified fury.

It stared (at least he thought it did,) poised, as if waiting, ready for him to attack; Spidey's thoughts jumped to the scream it had launched at him, how it had forced back the symbiote and put those thoughts in his h-

He turned sharply as bodies piled, sprinting out of the door onto the roof. His eyes widened in horror as one-by-one the dozen-strong horde of people, their eyes rolled into the backs of their heads, sprinted for the building's edge!

"NO!" He shouted, pouncing towards the throng of bodies leaping off the precipice; the creature became secondary as he threw out a wide spray of webbing quickly enough to snag the lowest jumper and those that followed.

Spider-Man thanked his stars he had the Other right now, its strength was immense and where his arms would simply have dislocated or his webs would have snapped without it, he jolted on the edge but managed to hold it.

He thought he'd saved them, but with a tingle he tensed up for the colossal blow he took from the creature to the back! His reactions kicked in as he was pulled over the edge and another web slapped the building's lip; he managed to swing low enough but slow enough to dump the sack of people safely on the ground. A captive audience made what they made of it, he was sure he'd hear of this later; right now he was focused on that creature, his blood boiling in rage.

He saw it leap to another roof-top and leapt after it; it was quick, sure, but not quick enough! He didn't hold back anymore, the time for that was gone! His flying kick launched it flying into a conjoining building with a sickening crunch. He chased in, furious and span it around, seeing its face all caved in and smashed; his eyes widened in horror at the sight of it, one arm hanging off disgustingly.

He paused too long and the violent, mindless thing lunged, sinking its teeth into his shoulder with animal rage. He screamed as he felt it dig in, but the symbiote held firm; with a thrust he launched it off himself, this thing would never quit!

\She made this abomination! Destroy it!/

"No... whatever it may be, this was a person once!" He refused flat-out, "We may be able to help them!"

\Look at it! It seethes with mindless rage! Why?/ It forced him to stare deep into the thing's eyes where he saw glowing slick matter coiling around inside its skull.

"Oh my god-" He thought he should feel nauseous, another of the Other's tricks to numb that sense. "It's..."

\Eaten their brain! Replaced it with some kind of puppet of hers! She controls this thing, a dead body kept alive by her sick designs!/ Venom spat with disgusted rage; Spider-Man was no fan... of Scream or what she'd done to what was once a person, but the malice in Venom's tone was terrifying even to him.

He wavered and the Other took control, driven by pure fury. Peter didn't know whether to resist or to just watch, but his own hands reached into those hollow eye-sockets and tore its skull apart. It burst not like a juicy, fresh piece of meat, but a dusty antique with nothing left in its veins.

Venom made him tear away the jaw, reach in and tear out the thing piloting this monstrosity; where he drew the line all too late was the Other forcing him to mould those jaws he so associated with its deepest fury and swallow the thing whole.

'No! NO! Oh god, that's disgusting! For god's sakes!' He wanted to vomit, hated himself for failing to stop it and staggered back.

\It had to be done!/ Venom insisted, Peter reeling against it.

"NO! No, that's... revolting... that's too much!" He forced it to reform his smooth mask as he gazed at the crumpled mess of human matter now free from Scream's twisted puppet play. "I knew this was a bad idea!" Peter enthused, hating it, hating himself.

\It was NOT human, Pete! It was the walking dead! A freak!/ He shook his head, feeling light-headed as he stumbled around. He fell to one knee, but thought logically about it at last, putting his disgust to the side.

"Those people..." He ran to the edge of the building; down below they were free of his webbing and whatever had controlled them. He leapt down and landed in a crouch, shocking and terrifying the milling people.

"Wait-!" He called, trying to stop them running.

\They think we were responsible for the Mall, remember?/ Venom said, calmer and more controlled now. He saw one woman, backed against a wall, staring at him and shaking.

"Look-" He assumed as non-threatening a stance as he could, "-I'm not gonna hurt you, I just want to know what caused you to jump off a building!" He gesticulated upwards.

"I-I- I heard a voice! It told me to! It told me I should die... I believed it! I tried! Oh god, why?!" She broke down, "What the hell's going on?!"

Spidey listened to it all, sympathy overcoming him. "I'm... sorry you had to be a part of that, but it's over now... Go home, OK?" She nodded, calming down and walked hazily away.

\Welp./ Venom said, seemingly as mystified and jaded as him.

"We've got to stop her... I don't know how, but she's absolutely insane." Peter spoke as he considered it.

\We don't even know why she was here... Why she ran off. We don't know anything!/

He hung his head, "You're right... and I'm too tired to chase her now." Dejectedly he leapt up to the roof, his thoughts raging; "The voice she spoke about... I heard it too, when you recoiled from that thing's shout." He informed the symbiote.

\I thought as much.../ It responded thoughtfully as they began their journey home. \The closer we got to that abomination the more I felt a... tingling like a sonic attack but not, subliminal. She's using sound-waves!/ It continued.

"Oh god..." Spidey groaned, "She put those ideas in their heads and even I'm not immune! This is getting worse by the minute... You think Wal-mart have a sale on headphones at the moment?"

He made a realisation with a shudder that if he was here alone he'd have jumped too, maybe made himself land head first. He shook the idea away as Venom continued.

\We got something out of this though.../ He swore, if it said something disgusting about eating that shred of symbiote he'd scream; the irony was lost on him. \We know what she's doing now AND we know how, I even got a grip on the frequency she's using. Maybe we can use that?/

"Huhhh... Guess I need you more than I thought, huh?" He begrudgingly admitted, the symbiote quietly bouncing with glee.

* * *

Donna inhaled deeply as she felt the pressurised, hot subterranean air wash over her face when Scream parted.

-He killed our wraith! He can stop them already, this isn't going to work...- Donna tutted and shut the thought out, pacing down the hall amongst patrolling officers who saluted the new security chief on passing.

She pleased herself a little with the thought of each man she passed running their eyes over the patterns and shapes of her body in the all-revealing Other, salivating over her like the hapless bodyguards and assistants to the people who'd made up her morning's "work".

Sure, she thought them disgusting perverts she'd like to skin alive, but at least she didn't have to worry for those kind of admirers; if she ever did, she'd just make herself some! The thought filled her with self and Other-gratifying glee.

She turned to a security door and beeped herself through; this area had no guards, converted as it quickly had been to a maximum security area for her purposes.

-If we put them out there... spread them thin to make the plan work, he'll just take them out!-

"They don't need..." She said aloud, preening her hair and not even bothering to contain her inner monologue anymore "-to work for very long!"

~Dee's thought of everything, we'll bet! We know it'll work, how could WE fail?~ Donna smiled confidently, strutting potently as she went.

She stopped by a door, looking through the reinforced glass into the cell beyond. Within this room the first stages of metamorphosis were occurring, this entire wing dedicated to her blossoming little army.

She pressed against the glass, watching the writhing and moaning of those within trying to help themselves and one-another; the boss had smartly sent a raiding party out to gather some resources; they would do for the task.

"These people..." she mused, "They're nobodies, but they are becoming stepping stones to the future; they should thank us!" She pushed away gently as she confirmed her beliefs.

~Dee has to hear the news!~ Donna smiled, having almost forgotten.

"Of course! We finished the list!" She danced a few steps towards the exit as she said it, "She'll be happy for sure!" She contented herself in that knowledge, her Other tickling in agreement.

Miss Diego couldn't remember the last time she felt this good, maybe it was one of her manic turns, but every step she took was a prancing bounce; she felt so giddy, so important and needed.

"Donna Diego is very much alive!" She announced out-loud as it all overtook her, life was rosy, this alien thing stuck to her felt every bit a blessing and she couldn't help but giggle!

Approaching the exit, she pushed out to her Other, weaving it into a figure-hugging, sexy little red number that reflected her mood; were she feeling any other way she wouldn't dream of such a thing, but THIS Donna strutted it. She liked this Donna!

-So much is riding on us...- Her voice tried to ground her.

"And that doesn't scare me in the slightest!" She announced, even out here in the main halls where others could hear and judge. It wasn't a secret anymore, not to anyone who mattered and the confidence that brought with it had her negative self hopelessly fighting extinction.

She entered the Director's chamber with Ms. Wentworth mid-conference call; she slouched a little, waiting quietly.

"The time is upon us at last, people..." She proclaimed, catching Donna out of the corner of her eye with a smile, "Phase 2 begins now!"

Dee closed the call and rose hurriedly, "Donna, my dear!" She beamed.

"Good Morning, Ms. Wentworth, we hope your shoes weren't ruined." The symbiote laughed hysterically in her head, it had never seen the ridiculous facial expressions of a regurgitating human until then; the humans' reactions said it was taboo but it had laughed long and hard after their meeting yesterday.

Dee eyed her up warily, "Nothing I will miss; News, dear?" Donna had to silence her symbiote, she honestly didn't see what was so funny, probably an alien thing.

Dee exuded confidence as she closed the gap to Donna; a piece of paper greeted her. "Hmm?"

Scream gleefully ate up the look on the boss' face as she read, "Hmhmhm... All of them!" She simply stated and looked up, "Our champion!" She proclaimed, "Come..." She offered the sofa once more and Donna took a seat much closer this time.

"It's time to tell you the details of our final assault!" Ms. Wentworth excessed, taking hold of a remote control. "The continental United States..." The big screen flickered to life, several nodes around a map flashing red. "What you're seeing, in each major city, are cells of multiple super-powered agents we have implanted for one singular purpose: To create havoc at this moment!"

Donna took it in, watching the light in Dee's face as she described it all; "The purpose? To instigate the final war!" She looked Donna square in the eyes, the younger woman showing her appreciation of the scale and planning involved.

"The final act is yours of course, if only you are willing!" She urged, knowing the response before she even heard it.

"What do we need to do?"

* * *

The headache hadn't stopped all day! Mary Jane Watson stumbled through the front door, dropping her bag with a groan; the whole city seemed to be going crazy, at least out here in the suburbs the ringing in her ears had stopped.

Slipping her shoes off, she flicked the kettle on; she slumped on her hands over the counter. Her hair was a mess she noticed as it fell in front of her, she felt like a mess.

She shuffled achingly through to the bedroom and leant against the frame, looking to her man, asleep fully clad in that black suit. She stared at the suit, at him hoping it would lighten her mood; instead an anger she couldn't explain began boiling up inside of her; she stared and scowled, gritting her teeth without so much as a good reason.

The kettle clicked off and she came-to. "Muh-" She shook her head and cradled it, she needed a lie down. "Things are starting to get crazy around here." She grumbled.

* * *

The evening was approaching and Scream perched herself on the tallest rooftop she could find. She watched the sun lowering onto the horizon for the last time and she smiled.

"This is all going to vanish..." She mused, "Every disgusting building, every shit-kicking person... It's all going to burn away in cleansing fire! That sounds... good." She nodded.

~It never deserved you, it deserves this!~ Her symbiote agreed and she found herself digging claws into the stonework as she arched her back in a pleasured stretch.

"Things are finally coming together for me, Other. My entire life has been one bad turn after another until now. I'm not the soppy type, but I do have you to thank for this... You give me the strength and... you make me happy at last... Thank-you."

They breathed in the cool air, statuesque on the lip of that skyscraper, blissful.

[Commander Scream, this is Control, over.] She took a moment before replying.

"Go ahead, Control." She said as amicably as the operator had ever heard.

[All units in position, Commander. Orders?] She smiled, it was time!

"Inform the Director that New York burns!"

~Sssss!~ The Other hissed delightedly.

Donna stood tall, feeling the wind directed helplessly past her impenetrable suit; the gravity of history felt itself around her and she soaked it in as her chest puffed out. Now was the time!

Her scream shook her to the core as she filled it with every ounce of her anger! It was the cry of an animal, wounded and bitter; it was a cry of freedom!

On rooftops and stowed away out of sight, decrepit creatures of ghastly forms rose from hunkered, disgusting positions to fulfil their purpose; Scream's siren song crept into the ears of an entire city.

Scream felt it, the echoes on the breeze as her creations came to sick, twisted life and brought a million minds under her control. She bent their whims to her desires, removed the very notion of free-will, she made them adore her as she wished to be adored! They could not hate her any more, they could not even fear her, they could only obey!


	5. Chapter 5

"She gets... what She wants..." Her voice droned, empty and raspy. The butane hiss of the hob was quieted by the seductive whispers swirling around her head, its soft flickering light throwing shadows over her face and white-washed eyes.

She flipped the bread knife over to see the red glow on the heated reverse; "She gets... what She wants..." She droned again, contentedly mind-numbed and obedient.

The gaseous flame flickered and puffed before dying itself out as its source ran out how the lights had flicked off throughout the city minutes earlier. Nonetheless satisfied in the remaining ambience coming from the blade, she turned and marched, her feet shuffling zombie-like as if she were dragged against her will one step after another towards the next room.

"She gets... what She wants..." She stated once more as she approached the large bed and its sole occupant within. 'She' wanted him dead, 'She' wanted him stabbed with searing, cauterizing finality. The dutiful slave crawled onto the bed, her sleeping target none-the-wiser as she reared up, lifting the blade above her head with intent; her eyes never flickered with a psychotic rage, she never braced or filled herself with adrenaline for the task, she just struck!

Peter Parker was instantly awake, disoriented and confused; 'WHAT?!' His head screamed in confusion. The red hair! The burning! The blade! It was happening again: his nightmare! He took it all in as he fully came-to, his arms raised, hands instinctively holding Mary Jane's wrists with a glowing, red-hot knife in her hands. She was struggling futilely against his life-saving Other's strength.

"MJ?! What the hell are you doing?!" He asked in terrified confusion, staring into her blank eyes, seeing them rolled into the back of her head. He recognised the expression, the blind bestial servitude: the same as the people on the roof!

He shot up and rolled her off himself onto the bed. She hot blade squealed as it touched the covers but his girlfriend did not relent, swinging it wildly his way as he backed off effortlessly. "Mary Jane! Stop it, what the hell are you doing?!" He begged, "Please, MJ!"

"She gets... what She wants..." She droned, swinging wildly. Peter Parker nearly broke apart in dread; 'How? Why?!' He asked himself in distress.

\One of Scream's tricks!/ Venom hissed; if it hadn't been with him, if he'd had no symbiotic sense protecting him as he and his spider-sense slept, he would have been murdered in cold blood by the love of his life!

"She's here?!" He asked aloud, keeping MJ at range as she tumbled out of bed, climbing back up angrily without sense of pain and throwing herself at him. "Woah-!" He dodged, "Sorry I have to do this, MJ..."

He snatched the knife and threw it aside, grabbed her wrist and span her; little splats of webbing glueed her wrists then ankles together. She screamed with all of her might, unsettling his other, but he lifted her gently onto the bed and laid her down despite her protestations.

\No, she's not... but that thing... the abomination that caused the jumpers... another one must be close!/ Venom reasoned as they gazed at MJ's blind puppet rage.

"GRR!" Peter growled angrily, quickly snatching up the still softly glowing knife and walking through to the studio area. "She is really beginning to get under my skin, Venom! She's GOT to be stopped!"

He span the tap to cool the blade, but found only the clanging of pipework and pulsing splashes of water meeting him; "Hmm?" He dropped the knife in the sink and walked to the wall, flicking the light-switch - nothing; he tried the gas - nothing. He approached the window, the glow beyond said the street-lights still worked, "What's going..."

He gawked as he pulled back the curtain; the street-lights DIDN'T still work, that was not the glow of artificial lighting, but the burning of New York City!

* * *

Donna Diego laughed, this was perfect! This hateful city had bent entirely to her desires, turned the glowing yellows and reds of her Other!

From her stance atop an upturned lorry, she gazed over the carnal, mindless rioters throwing themselves around, smashing anything they could find; the mindless outrage pleased her, it pleased her endlessly!

"DESTROY, MY CHILDREN!" She cried out hysterically, "RAZE THIS CITY TO THE FUCKING GROUND!" She demanded and it was so, the occasional banshee-like shrieks of her walking loud-speakers sounding out her commands through the flames. "YOU ARE THE ARCHITECTS OF THE FUTURE, EMBRACE IT!"

~Yes! YESSS! Our creation! OUR WORLD! It is all coming to pass!~ The symbiote spiralled and gyrated in delight. Feeling the minds of millions obeying and bending to its every whim was an intoxicating elixir of power; it shared every sensation with its host, delighted she so rolled with it and shared it. She was its... THE perfect host, she was its everything and it adored her!

"Where is the Spider, our Other? Where is Venom?! We want them to see this!" Donna asked, jumping down from her perch into the rioting crowd. She motioned her arms up and out from her sides, parting the crowd into sprinting, body-smashing destruction.

She hissed in delight as with the gestures of a conductor, she moved the throng of people, smashed it and unleashed it with the ease she moved her Other's tendrils. The power-rush raging through her mind brought her to a roaring cackle, "Look at us, world!" She enthused, motioning back towards herself, drawing bodies in.

"LOOK AT YOUR DESTROYER!" She cried as she took firm footing on the stooping bodies of those piling beneath her, rising on a pillar of humanity that filled and amassed, lifting her, euphorically laughing into the sky; this was definitely one of her manic turns.

She screamed in vindication atop her skyscraper of flesh "WE ARE YOUR GOD!"

* * *

Deirdre Wentworth sighed heavily, nervously; her heart was racing. She wasn't one to ever be seen as weak or show her nerves, but as another red blip on her map went out she seized up in anxiety. The cells she had so ingeniously put together and implanted were one-by-one falling; this was part of the plan, it was never going to matter once enough had been done but it drove her crazy!

The main battle raged above her, here was where it would be won or lost; she reminded herself over and over, but still she quivered with nervous energy.

She told herself she was confident, deep down she knew she had everything in place to succeed and her very best overseeing the coup-de-grace; this shouldn't fail! Even still, years of her life, her every fibre of being and effort had gone into this one act and as the pieces moved around the board it was becoming too much. Even for her.

"It's the end of the world..." Peter Parker achingly admitted as he leapt over another New York citizen blindly trying to kill him on sight, then up from the street onto a still-standing rooftop, "We can't fight the entire city!" He solemnly exclaimed.

\My host... This isn't a battle we can win that way./ Venom responded, considering and contemplating as they watched the puppets of its offspring clambering the walls and roof-tiles after them.

They were following its instincts and Peter's ears to one of these abominations; a plan was formulating.

"How DO we win, huh?" He asked desperately, "These things must be sending out her commands, but listen!" They did, "They're everywhere, hundreds of them! By the time we take them all down, the city will be flattened!"

\So we take HER down instead!/ The Other countered. They leapt again, it was close.

"Last I checked, without you I'm the same as everyone else and WITH you, she just screams a bit then stabs us to death!" He was desperate and not thinking straight.

Venom realised this, realised they needed the one thing he always had in spades and to its own peril it shut off the drip of adrenaline into his body. They needed to think clearly, it wasn't the time to be selfish.

Spidey landed and exhaled heavily, "I've got to think!" He settled, this spot was relatively quiet for now, giving them a moment.

\My offspring... How is she so different?/ The Other offered, contemplatively.

"She... must have developed not only an immunity to sound waves, but an affinity to them... We know that, but how?" Peter responded, calming immensely.

\Genetic history?/ Venom responded, its own mind none-too sharp without an intake of his hormones.

"Could you... emulate that? If she can adapt in just one generation, could YOU take a sample of Scream's tissue and use it to gain her immunities? I'll bet like you she's not immune to fire, there's no lack of that if it comes to it..." The plan was most definitely forming.

\I can.../ It released its squeeze on his adrenal gland and gasped as if taking in air; they would need all the boost they could get.

"And I know exactly where to find that sample!" Peter committed, knowing what this would entail.

\Peter... are you sure you are willing to do this?/ Venom showed deep concern given their prior run-in with Scream's despicable creations.

"To save the city, yes." He furrowed his brow, if it cost him his humanity so be it! Rather that than the WHOLE of humanity!

* * *

Far away, locked inside the oval office, the President of the United States read what he had written. Harry Osborn swallowed hard, he couldn't believe the moment had come and it was all catching up to him; he glanced over at a folder labelled 'Life Foundation Exodus Plan' and heaved.

The news of wide-spread destruction had been troubling to his nation; through better or worse, whatever the means, he was their elected leader and he would have to respond. The news of New York, the news he was waiting on was thin on the ground, but his benefactor had warned him of as much. He read it aloud again.

"My fellow Americans..." He sighed; it was one of those speeches; "This nation has seen the best of times and the worst of times; we have endured." He paused for effect. "Never before has a darker hour than this befallen us, but we will not bow; America... will not surrender to this menace!"

He paced away and back, thinking about the wording while in every major city other Americans were thinking about how they would survive the night; he scribbled out a word and added another 'America' for effect. "Throughout the night and the early hours of the morning, countless villainous attacks by Super-powered individuals have fallen upon the great cities of this nation. America will not tolerate this kind of aggression!" He nodded.

"Many of our cities have suffered tragically through the night, the loss of so much life appals us all. It is, however, with the heaviest of hearts I announce most tragically of all... New York city has been destroyed in an attack of unprecedented ferocity and callousness." he sucked air in, the next bit he still had to finalise with his defence chiefs, but it would be so.

"My fellow Americans, we are not without hope! We will defend ourselves!" He read the next line with a spinning head, "With great consideration, I and your duly appointed government have condoned the use of our nuclear arsenal and full martial law in response to these attacks."

"Whew..." He said aloud, pacing with the paper on which the speech was written now, "Do not fear, America. Provisions have been set aside for you and your families. This is not the dying breath of this nation, America. We shall endure! My thoughts go out to each and every one of you. God help us all!"

Harry collapsed into his chair, his head falling heavily into the leather upholstery; he wiped his brow then reached for the other document.

* * *

He'd forgotten how it felt, to reshape his very face. It shouldn't be any different to the hammers and bludgeoning objects he'd learnt to form from the Other, but it was! When Spider-Man's face opened and clenched as that mass of fangs and flatness, it felt so wrong even if it felt so right.

The destroyed body of Scream's minion fell at his feet and slid down the roof-tiles to the ground below, this too felt wrong: to do that to someone, but he'd come to agree with the Other. They were better off dead and even if they could break Scream's grip... He shuddered. "And?" His voice distorted through Venom.

\We need more! We are stronger, more resilient, but the strain is complex, inefficient as if hurriedly put together./

"A direct response to the sonic weapons used to hurt you, no doubt." It agreed. Peter worried; if the symbiotes could so easily adapt to their weaknesses, grow stronger and stronger (he was in no doubt Scream's display of control in her tendrils was a sign of her superiority to Venom,) then what horrors did the future hold?!

\There is more./ Venom continued, deep concern in its voice. \The message that monstrosity was broadcasting spoke of the future... of building a 'future life through destruction'./

"A future life through destruction?" It made little sense and the connotations didn't hit him.

\LIFE... foundation?/ Spidey began to think hurried thoughts as they wove faster and faster towards the next abomination. He considered, doubled over his thoughts and froze mid-leap, the Other guiding them back down.

"This is not the only attack!" He realised in terror; he had no way to know, no outside connection with the world at large, but it all made sense. "My god, they're going to destroy the world! They're trying to start again, holy shit!" His mind blew, "This... can't happen!"

The words 'New World Order' sprung to mind; he'd never paid conspiracy theories much heed, but this, IF he was right was on a scale beyond imagination! He redoubled his pace and wasted no time fighting the next target; he swatted it apart near-instantly and set about the task with new-found vigour.

* * *

Something buzzed next to Dee; she sipped her usual with a shaky hand before reaching for the button.

[Ms. Wentworth... Several units have gone quiet around the queens area; we are tracking a potential threat based on crowd movements heading towards Manhattan.] She shook in rage and terror; it couldn't happen, it wouldn't!

"Inform Commander Scream immediately and send everything you have to her aid! They will NOT stop us now!" She demanded with a snarl at the intercom, releasing it.

[Yes, ma'am; the Commander is already on her way.]

"This is your moment, my sweet..." She said to herself, stirring her drink. "Don't fail me now!"

Dee sipped as another blip went out; she screamed in blind rage and launched her glass into the screen. Quivering, her head fell into her hands.

* * *

"Mr. President! With all due respect, what good would use of our nuclear arsenal do? You're talking about using them against our own people, for God's sake!" A general pleaded with Harry Osborn.

"I'm afraid I have to disagree with you, Charles. We're under full-scale assault on all fronts; we have attempted to curb the Supers before through conventional means; you've seen the results!" Another responded.

"Listen, Robert, Mr. President: the attackers in 7 cities have been nullified with only 3 of those still encountering any rioting, we CAN control this!" The first one rationalised, Harry clutching his face in his fingers.

"General... Have you not asked yourself why so many attacks have happened simultaneously?" He spoke knowingly, "You're a military man; what strategic use would it be to launch so many attacks at once?"

"W-W-Well I-" He stammered for thought, the other piping up.

"I am with the President here; it is my distinct belief that what we are seeing are not the only instances. Furthermore the troubling reports of elements of our nuclear arsenal being stolen?! If we don't act now, we may never be able to!" The second adviser professed.

"We are looking at the options of either total war with these traitorous freaks or total nuclear annihilation! Which is more preferable? Don't you think the reds would respond?! We're talking about starting World War Three!"

"General..." Mr. Osborn said gravely, "World War Three has already started. And I think the worst is yet to come."

* * *

She ran.

She didn't know why.

Her legs probably hurt.

She didn't know, but she wasn't alone.

They ran next to her.

Office workers, firemen, postal workers and police officers, all of them were united in the urge to get there.

Wherever there was.

Like moths to a flame, in their millions New Yorkers descended on Manhattan, called home by their She-God.

Peter Parker watched it below him as he swung; they weren't chasing him anymore; they were leading him.

\I am sorry, Peter. That you had to be a part of this. I have brought your world to ruin when all I wanted was to make you happy./ Venom said solemnly; it felt like all this could have been sidestepped, even if it wasn't all the symbiote's fault.

"Forget it." He simply said, his mind focused, drawn as they were below him to the epicentre.

He spied her a ways off, she was impossible to miss between the brightly burning skyscrapers, a glowing beacon of hate amidst it all. She was surrounded in a 360 degree wall of people stood on top of themselves, crushed, caked in their own and one-another's blood; monstrous and animal people devoid of all sense in numbers he couldn't even begin to fathom!

This was Scream's colloseum and she watched him all the way in.

"It is time!" She spoke to her Other, her blood pumping with adrenal drive.

~Yes! We end him now and secure our future! We will win! We will kill them!~

She swelled with confidence, surrounded by an army millions strong of faithful, obedient slaves controlled by a hundred strong dusting of wraiths holding them in her absolute power. How could she lose?

He landed in a squat on the scarred tarmac of Times Square; he rose slowly to the sound of thousands of hissing, manic puppet humans and their champion staring him down.

Silence between them for a moment, the tension was palpable.

"Why did you come?" She asked earnestly and mockingly "You could have just run! Lived for a few more hours and had some fun... You like FUN, don't you, 'Dad'?" She poured derision on the word and chuckled.

"You know we had to! Deep down you know what you are doing is evil! You know that you have to be stopped!" He retorted.

"Oh? Do we? And here we thought we were building a FUTURE! A future free from the disgusting whims of others! A future WE have the power to determine!" She spat angrily, determinedly. "If you weren't so fucking resistant you could have even been a part of that!"

"Then why let us get this far?" His monstrous jaws roared, every bit as terrifying as hers.

"Mmm..." She hummed humouredly; "Aside from the fact we wanted to see for ourself the Spider's fall from grace, consumed by his greatest enemy?!" She let that sink in "If you must ask: if you're here, it's easier to KILL YOU!" She clashed her hands together and rained a thousand-strong body of people on top him!

Spidey reacted almost instantly and leapt, reaching out for a web-line, only to find himself snagged by one of Scream's tendrils, "LEAVING SO SOON?!" She yelled, her hair flicking around her to grab an incoming web of desperation as her human tidal wave crashed on top of her rival.

"NOOO!" Spider-Man cried as the tide pulled him under; he writhed and pushed desperately as they pulled him down and piled higher, bodies upon puppet-mastered bodies, slowly pushing him down, crushing, clawing.

"Hmhmhmhmhm-HAHAHAHAHA!" Scream laughed raucously, her grotesque, demonic voice echoing through the throng.

Spidey continued to writhe under the pressure, groaning and crying out, it was hopeless; he was beat! The noise, the screaming, the smell repulsed him, but he fought!

'We... can't let...'

\Peter.../ Venom said, straining against their predicament, \I have an idea!/ He was stunned, but felt its thoughts, its ideas and agreed.

The Other would not let him be killed; not like this, not by her! It had worked so very hard, dreamt and dreamt about getting him back, it wasn't about to lose that! It wasn't about to be beaten by its own offspring!

"CRUSH HIM! TEAR HIM APART!" Scream commanded, feeling every claw, every punch as she laughed hysterically; this was too easy!

~All is as it should be! With their deaths, we can be... Mmm, so happy!~ The Other preened her mind lovingly, ~Victory over one of my own is the highe-~ They stopped mid-thought, distracted.

'What-?' She no longer felt the clawing, the punching and the kicking.

~No-! NO!~ The Other whined, sorrow filling its form as slowly its command began to falter.

\All will be well./ Venom soothed Peter as he began to lose consciousness.

Its tendrils snaked out, into each discomforted body, calming the hum of Scream's command in them, silencing her banshee cry!

Scream set herself, even as she cradled her head; she watched her dogpile collapse and the figure at the centre stand tall as bodies drove back against bodies. She screamed at him in rage, but saw no response, her most trusted power wouldn't work: he'd learned fast!

"A neat trick, you old fool! But it won't save you!" Scream leapt in without giving him a moment to recover, her hair swinging forwards as spikes and barbs, her fists and face meeting his as they clashed explosively.

The two symbiote pairs were a blur of motion, each matched to the other, blade for lancing blade, punch for jaw-shattering punch. Scream grabbed an incoming hammer forged of black tendrils and used it to back-flip-kick him in the face, launching him still snared in her hand; she pulled back and thrust a huge spear of her own that punctured and thrust him rubber-like away.

"YOU CAN'T WIN! WE'RE BETTER THAN YOU!" She screamed as she launched on a spring of hair tendrils, bringing every nasty she could imagine into being. Spidey saw it as he hit a building, feeling the heat of the fires within sear him.

He rolled up the fascia and let her smash into the building's side, throwing concrete and glass onto the crowds below.

She reared back from the fire and took a web-splat to the face; her reactions were amazing, the Other snaring the web in its matter and sending carving blades scything back at him.

Spidey cried out as its offspring's tendrils cut into his arm; his grip of the building slipped as Scream threw her torso about, launching him across the street.

Before her face had even reformed, Scream had launched at him, her Other's extra-sensory senses meant she didn't even need to see him to press her assault! Spider-Venom rallied mid-air and pounced off the building to meet her halfway.

An explosion of alien matter engulfed them as they clashed, clawing, smashing and tearing into one-another as they fell; they screamed, they shouted and when they hit the ground, yellow stood astride beaten blue.

Donna heaved heavily, staring down into his eyes, her own full of fury, "Give it up." She demanded, he refused.

"N-never!" He reached up at her with clawed fingers that she snatched ferociously.

"I WILL kill you!" She enthused, her other hand a mess of malformed instances of furious, coiling sharpness she thrust into his shoulder with a lunge, tearing, ripping and slicing through him to an almighty shriek of agony.

She stabbed and stabbed at his arm and shoulder with a psychotic rage, tearing the limb off with utter contempt; she was winning! It was all going to work! She threw the torn up severed limb aside, it landing by the feet of a hunkered, broadcasting abomination that looked at it with fascination.

Her tendril extensions pierced Spidey's shuddering body and pulled him up beneath her. "You're old and weak, Venom!" Scream goaded, chuckling. "You know as well as WE do, our species EXISTS to create our own murderers! You are beat! You are DEAD!"

Spidey was feverish, communicating somewhere fundamentally with his Other. It WAS his Other now, he'd accepted it, come to appreciate it even if it seemed like a worthwhile gesture now.

They barely understood what they were doing, but laughed about it anyway. They may have been dangling nearly lifeless from her fish-hooks, pierced in ways that would have killed Peter alone, but even now they found a way!

"You're right... Scream... You're better..." He said, still laughing and coughing up blood, "But you're a very sick little girl!" He'd found an answer, she'd given it to him and realised all too late.

He dropped to the ground as she staggered back; her head buzzing with voices; she turned to see the severed arm of the parent symbiote clutching the face of one of her minions. A new message was being broadcast: Freedom! Backlash!

It corrupted her entire frequency as she lost control of her other minions, writhing where she stood and staggering as she cried out "NO! NOOOOO!" She felt a million voices crying out at her in rage, in hatred!

The two symbiotes vied for control of the network and between them free-will returned; a numberless chorus of spite shrieked hatred at their would-be god!

-We hate you!- -You're disgusting!- -We'll kill you for what you did to us!- -You're nothing!- -You're a nobody!- -You're sick!- -Fuck off!- -You're evil!- -We'll never forgive you!- -You're not even human anymore!-

She screamed with all her might, trying to escape it, the feedback bursting at the seams of her mind!

Spidey began to stand as tendrils formed something like a replacement for his arm; he staggered after her, "It's over, Scream! The people have spoken!" He chuckled gruffly and hurt. "For what you did to them, they're gonna tear your whole illusion down!" He cried as she stumbled away.

"Shutup-shutup-SHUTUP!" She cried out, leaping up to the side of a building, trying to get away, her head flooded, constant confidence-shattering hatred poured on her fragile mind, driving her to desperation!

-They hate us! We're no god to them! We're an animal!-

'NO! NO! NO!' She rebuked in tears beneath her suit.

-They're going to catch us, kill us! We knew we'd fail! We were never good enough to win!-

She scaled the burning building, followed by a challenging, shouting Spider-Venom. "YOU CAN'T ESCAPE, SCREAM! NOT AFTER WHAT YOU'VE DONE!"

She reached the top, still staggering and turned as he arrived, the shrieking of them all still smashing her mind like the endless thrashing winds of a hurricane!

"YOU! YOU CAUSED THIS ALL!" She shrieked, leaping in and assaulting the battered man as if that would make it go away. He resisted and - even gravely wounded - her fragile state let him block and grab, snaring the hair she so ferociously used against him and so many innocent people; he muscled her to the edge.

"LOOK AT THEM! LOOK AT THE PEOPLE YOU DID THIS TO!" He cried at her in fury, "YOU CAN NEVER ESCAPE THIS! THE PEOPLE ALWAYS WIN!"

"EIAAAAAGH!" She screamed aloud and exploded in a furious barrage of tendrils to release herself. She swung at him, slicing with an almighty flare of weaponry that thrust him back, staggered and cut-up once more. "NO! We can't- we- we-" She stumbled backwards, writhing in confusion as she clutched her head, nails puncturing her own scalp as she tore at her head, trying to tear her own brain out! The voices wouldn't give her rest; louder and louder they blinded her senses!

Spider-Man watched, helpless as she stumbled into an opening in the roof, a collapsed ceiling burned through by a fire that had gutted it top-to-bottom. He lunged, desperately, trying - despite it all - to get to her as she fell, screaming as was her wont into the inferno below!

In virtual slow-motion, Venom watched its child vanish screaming into the flames she so perfectly imitated in form as much as in function.

They collapsed on the fissure's edge, drained of everything; below them the racket quieted, hissing and screaming gave way to language once again... it was over.

Venom thought, it hoped that she might be gone, but knew better than to really believe this was the last they would see of Donna Diego and her Other.

* * *

She stopped where she stood, blinking with a groan; around her... was this hell? "Wh-where am I? What's going on?" Mary Jane Watson asked along with a throng of other faces, each as mystified and frightened, surrounded by the burning ruins of their city.

She felt it... in the back of her head... the name of the voice that had controlled her: Scream! She was gone, but MJ's anger was not; she was a sensible person, others of course were less so. While she could resist the urge for revenge, she knew others would not; 'The Life Foundation...' she thought; all of New York now knew where it was, all of New York now knew what it had done!

* * *

Deirdre Wentworth shook; in terror, in rage. She didn't blame Donna, she couldn't... She blamed herself; if it had failed, it was because SHE didn't plan for this eventuality and it HAD failed.

[Ms. Wentworth! MS. WENTW-AAAGH!] Static...

"Carry on what we started, Donna..." Dee said to herself, consigned to her fate. "-it all rests on you now."

She sipped her drink with quivering lips and an unsteady hand; the last red dot on her map blinked out at what felt like a fitting moment.

A tear crept down her face as the shouting grew louder and the sounds of thrashing at the door began.

"I am sorry, humanity..." One last drink as the door gave in.

"I tried."

* * *

"MR. PRESIDENT!" An excited general burst into the oval-office as Harry Osborn was straightening his tie in final preparation. He approached, waving a piece of paper that had got him clearly riled.

"What is it, General?" He asked, genuinely concerned.

"It's New York, sir!" His face must have been a picture, was this the news he'd been waiting on? It couldn't be, surely that wasn't possible!

"We've received reports from our units there; a massive-scale psychic attack has caused the people themselves to all but destroy the entire city!" Word had got out, how? "They report that the situation is now under control, but the devastation is almost total!"

Harry sat down, hands flat on his desk, eyes staring into space... it was over, failed at the eleventh hour. His heart skipped to a different beat as his hand crumpled up his speech.

"Very good, General. See to the repairs if you would." He said in a cold, empty drone. The general looked at him with confusion, trying to read him, but took it as concern and made his leave.

Harry was alone, quiet descending on the oval office as he exhaled heavily; what if they found out he was involved? He knew Ms. Wentworth was savvy enough to not keep records of clients, but... how had it failed?

He shook his head out and reached into his desk drawer, retrieving an envelope labelled 'Life Foundation Project Accelerant'. He broke the seal and opened it, examining details of the entity known as Scream and with it, information of a contingency plan.

His head fell into his hand contemplatively... surely they couldn't be serious!


	6. Epilogue and post-script

[We hope you are satisfied, Dad... SNFF!]

[We had just a little ray of happiness and you took it from us...]

[Because of you... She's dead. The only person we ever trusted. And the Foundation - gone! Snff-]

[Now there's nothing holding us back!]

[SNIFF- We're going to come back for you, you know... You and your host!]

[We'll find a way to hurt you and everyone you love. Sniff-]

[We should thank-you really- Snff-ff]

[Now that we're free from expectation and responsibility -SNFF, we're free to do it OUR way!]

[You haven't stopped the future, our future. We just want you to know that.]

[We'll dry our tears and come back for you... believe it!]

[Meantime, we're gonna shack up with our Bro, blow off a little st-]

"Never mind that sick little puppy-" A hand reached across, hung up and deleted the voicemail.

Peter turned, shocked, "Muh-MJ! The Oth-" That same hand put a finger to his lip.

"Shh!" She said, decked out in the black suit. "Don't worry... We've been talking." She rubbed up against him closely.

"We both want you more than anything in the world..." She smiled so sweetly from inside the mask. "We can't think of anything sexier than having you all to ourselves so we're compromising." He wasn't sure, looking concerned.

"Shh... relax! I told you I was afraid before, but that taste of the Other I got made me realise how much I need this! You wouldn't take that from me would you?" She questioned, knowing his mind had turned. "You shared something out there when you stopped Scream, you rekindled the Other's love..."

She seductively ran a hand over herself, "It's happy now and we're a family..." She said motherly.

Peter ran a hand through his hair and pulled at it, gritting his teeth, "I... Still don't know if I trust it!" MJ shook her head.

"And that's no way for the Other to live, is it? Great power, Tiger... it works for hearts too." She'd felt its pain, its longing and in her empathy offered it what it wanted. "If you could hear..." She touched his temple with her middle and index finger, flashing his mind with the emotions flooding her way.

Peter sighed heavily, thinking; "Pete..." She spoke softly, sincerely, "-everything doesn't have to be about you; all the world's problems don't have to be yours to carry alone." She pleaded, "Besides-" She shuffled and with incredible flexibility and strength flung herself over him, coming in close, "-we're not asking you for permission... We're telling you." She purred excitedly and a little jokingly. "Well?" She pressed for his answer.

"God-dammit I'm gonna hate myself for this..." He grumbled, "But it has to understand I'll be watching; the safest place for that thing is right where I can find it." She was pleased, her could tell.

"Thanks, Tiger... Of course you always know where you can find us..." She bit her lip sensually, "-next to you..." He smiled as he marvelled over her beauty.

"Now I think I... WE owe you a night to remember-" She lilted into his ear.

"Mmm-" He moaned a little, "It's definitely not Monday!"

* * *

She pursed her lips and blew cold air out, moaning a little. She flicked her red hair back behind her shoulder as she leant on her elbows on top of him, "You finished?" She asked, a little irked.

He heavily exhaled a couple of times, "Tchyeah-" To which she smiled and brought her face up to his; she locked lips and sent tastes he instantly disliked all over his tastebuds.

"Then you can keep that!" She humourlessly said, throwing her long leg off in a wide arc as she slapped his face and stood off the bed.

He gummed away at the nasty flavour, scowling as he did. He watched her approach the grubby, smeared mirror on the side and look herself over.

-He's probably just using you for sex; probably hates you!-

'I couldn't give a shit.' She confidently told herself, winning how she couldn't have before Scream. She felt so very beautiful in it: no matter how she felt, she and it always looked good!

'He can do what he likes, he's a pathetic little thing we'll kill when his usefulness expires.' She strutted to herself as her hated lover rose from bed, whirls of chaotic red symbiote withdrawing into tight jeans and leaving his chest bare.

"You hungry?" He asked, barely looking at her; the female figure seemed less appealing after the act, news to him thanks to this nutcase after his own heart.

He'd got as close as he ever did to thinking when she turned up that maybe Venom had a thing for making its kiddos into lunatics.

Donna turned as her Other wound down her hair, "I hear there's this great little Italian family down the street?" He sniggered at the witticism.

"So you beat me to that joke, good on ya, but remind me why am I sharing my grub with ya?" She strode to him, strutting and laid one of her clawed hands on his torso as she leant in to whisper.

"Well..." Her hand vibrated, punching inside his abdomen almost effortlessly to a juddering squeal, "Because all it takes is a word and I can tear your FUCKING heart out!" She aggressively spat into his ear. Scream felt his internal organs slither around her fingers, taking a moment for emphasis before she slipped back out of him.

"But you know best, 'Bro', so lead the way..." With a grumble he turned to the door, he didn't sign up for this shit!

Post Script:

First things first, I want to thank-you so much for reading this story; if nobody did I would never find the drive to make my ideas into more, so you have my sincerest thanks!

If you enjoyed it, please feel free to add it to your favourites or drop me a review to show you care :)

I'd love to get some feedback; whether you enjoyed it, hated it, have some constructive criticism I can use to improve my writing skills, anything! Drop some words off, I'd love to head from you!

Oh, but if anyone uses the phrase "Daddy Issues" I'll rewrite Spider-Man as Spider-Eunuch and make his every line of dialogue something about male sexual dysfunction - take your misogyny elsewhere! :P

Also, I accept graciously any corrections or suggestions you can send my way in regards to Donna's actions, the writing of her voices etc. I don't have Bipolar or Paranoid Schizophrenia which I was trying to go for, so I've no real framework beyond my understanding of what that might be like.

* * *

Secondly, just to give a bit of background to the story; let me stress, these are just my opinions and shouldn't be taken too seriously:

I know it's a very simplistic way to look at it, but to give an idea: I see Scream as cruising the Chaotic-Evil/Neutral-Evil area of the 'character alignment scale' ( /Main/CharacterAlignment) with a bit of Chaotic-Neutral there for when needs must; where I'd put Venom at Chaotic or Neutral-Neutral sometimes dipping into Chaotic-Good and Carnage at flat-out Chaotic-Evil; She might not kill you just for being there like Carny, but she's cunning and driven enough to start thermonuclear war if the voices tell her to. Likewise she could save your life as Venom would IF it's worth her while. Either way, not a safe person to be given any kind of super-power – And I love it!

Scream has been one of - if not my absolute favourite characters in fiction since I was a teenager so not quite from her 1993 debut, but only a few years later. I first caught wind of her existence on a yahoo group dedicated to marvel's symbiotes, YEAH, back when yahoo groups were a thing!

I remember back then the discussions we had when the Life Foundation symbiotes were shiny new, exciting things on what we should name some of the characters and encourage others to (I remember the comment string where 'Agony' was decided on, because 'Shriek' was already taken XD). In the canon, of course, they were only shown with their given names, we didn't even know Donna's (as the star attraction) surname, never-mind symbi-name; maybe I'm putting some excess on the truth when I say it, but these characters, their names at least, are ours, the fans'.

WARNING, NEXT PARAGRAPH VERY PISSY!

Perhaps you shared or understand my horror when the psychotic non-entity to last "write" (I use the phrase VERY lightly!) my waifu brought her out of creative limbo (and in-canon first used the name that WE came up with!) in the worst and most disrespectful act of character assassination I've ever had the misfortune of witnessing (there's a rebuttal on why it's so fucking ridiculous within the story ^) For those who know, I stand stronger than ever in my commitment to never buy another Marvel comic until I get some kind of apology for that shit. Yeah, it's petty but nothing else they do comes close to my waifu so fuck it!

Aaanyway, I can't stress enough: I LOVE Scream! Her design is so visually striking, melding terror and ambiguity (what is she to you: Embodiment of fire? Lion-totem? Ink-blot personification to signify her mental condition(s)? None of the above?) alll that with a sense of feminine power I absolutely adore!

Her characterisation I'm less a fan of, the idea of a symbiote host with complicated mental disease is fascinating and offers an opportunity to explore some elements of the human psyche rarely touched on. On the other hand, a lot of laziness has been thrown her way down the years, wedging her in as a plot device or caveat here or there to give her a reason for appearing; (I'm not complaining, as stated, I love her design, so: winner!) Consistency and foresight is a tall ask for comics, I know, but a guy can hope!

This story then, serves a dual purpose for me:

Therapy – see above (If I were to find the man behind the comic I mentioned burning alive in the street I wouldn't waste the wee-wee to put the fire out.)

And to try and give Scream as a potential character a framework to shine in, maybe bring her a new lease of life if only for me. As I've said, I see her character as having so much unpredictability due to her intense and scatter-shot psychological conditions, it begs to be written and explored how a more straight-forward character like Carnage just... doesn't.

Enough babble, I don't want to ruin any good impression the story may have made with my saltiness LMAO. 

Thank-you for reading, be good to one-another and use those inside voices, now you know the power of a Scream! ;)

Thanks again, SmoothlyDIF


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